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THE CITIZEN'S LIBRARY 

OF 

ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND 
SOCIOLOGY 

EDITED BY 

RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., LL.D. 

PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, UNIVERSITY 
OF WISCONSIN 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 



THE CITIZEN'S LIBRARY OF 
ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND SOCIOLOGY 

Edited by Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., LL.D. 
Half Leather 12mo $1.25 net each 

AMERICAN CITY, THE. A Problem in Democracy. By D. F. 
Wilcox. 

AMERICAN MUNICIPAL PROGRESS. Chapters in Municipal 
Sociology. By C. Zueblin. 

CHILD PROBLEMS. By George B. Mangold. Preparing, 

COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. By Paul S. Reinsch. 

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT. By P. S. Reinsch. 

CUSTOM AND COMPETITION. By R. T. Ely. Preparing. 

DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS. By Jane Addams. 

ECONOMIC CRISES. By E. D. Jones. 

ECONOMICS OF DISTRIBUTION. By J. A. Hobson. 

EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. By Frank 
Tracy Carlton. 

ELEMENTS OF SOCIOLOGY. By F. W. Blackmar. 

ESSAYS IN THE MONETARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED 
STATES. By C. J. Bullock. 

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. By E. A. Ross. 

GOVERNMENT IN SWITZERLAND. By J. M. Vincent. 

GREAT CITIES IN AMERICA. Their Problems and their Govern- 
ment. By D. F. Wilcox. Preparing. 

HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 
By J. Macy. 

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL POLICIES. By G. M. Fisk. 

INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ORGANIZATION. By S. E. 
Sparling. 

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF AGRICULTURAL ECO- 
NOMICS. By H. C. Taylor. 

IRRIGATION INSTITUTIONS. A Discussion of the Growth of Ir- 
rigated Agriculture in the Arid West. By E. Mead. 

MONEY. A Study of the Theory of the Medium of Exchange. 
By David Kinley. 

MONOPOLIES AND TRUSTS. By R. T. Ely. 

MUNICIPAL ENGINEERING AND SANITATION. By M. N. Baker. 

NEWER IDEALS OF PEACE. By Jane Addams. 

PRINCIPLES OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY, THE. In 
their relations to Criminal Procedure. By M. Parmelee. 

RAILWAY LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES. By B. H. 
Meyer. 

SOCIAL CONTROL. A Survey of the Foundation of Order. By 
E. A. Ross. 

SOME ETHICAL GAINS THROUGH LEGISLATION. By Mrs. 
Florence Kelley. 

SPIRIT OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. By J. A. Smith. 

STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY. 
By R. T. Ely. 

SURVEY OF SOCIOLOGY. By E. Vincent. Preparing. 

WAGE-EARNING WOMEN. By Annie Marion MacLean. 

WORLD POLITICS. By P. S. Reinsch. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 



THE CITIZEN'S LIBRARY 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 



BY 



ANNIE MARION MacLEAN, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY IN ADELPHI 
COLLEGE 



INTRODUCTION 
By Grace H. Dodge 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1910 

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TEACHER, COUNSELOR, FRIEND 



PREFACE 

The study of a wide field in industry cannot be ac- 
complished by one person within a reasonable period, 
owing to obstacles of time and space. Therefore, the 
only practicable means of making such a study is to 
employ assistance. In the investigation which forms 
the subject of the following chapters I was authorized 
to engage such help as I needed, and it gives me great 
pleasure to acknowledge here my indebtedness to the 
forty assistants who made this story of wage-earning 
women possible. Their work, as well as mine, appears 
in the following pages. Theirs was the task of collect- 
ing material and furnishing reports on their respective 
fields, mine the task of planning and directing and 
editing. 

The complete list of investigators, with the sections of 
country in which they worked, is given in Appendix I, 
but I want to acknowledge particularly my obligation to 
those who acted as sub-directors in the groups to which 
they were assigned, viz. : Miss Grace Lyman, in Chi- 
cago, Miss Caroline Manning, in New York and New 
Jersey, and Miss Amy Tanner, who, with an assistant, 
made the study of the coal fields in Pennsylvania, 
included in chapter nine. In addition to these, my 
thanks are due in special measure to my friend and 
co-worker, Miss Amy Hewes, of Mt. Holyoke College, 
who not only took charge of the New England investi- 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

gation and became responsible for the complete reports, 
but also aided by her inspiration and encouragement, 
the larger task. My thanks are also due to my efficient 
secretary, Miss Anna Seaburg, whose devotion to details 
made possible the completion of the work. The kindly 
cooperation of men and women all over the country 
helped at every turn. Busy social workers and people 
of leisure, employers and employees, assisted wher- 
ever they could and enabled us to carry the work to its 
conclusion. I have to thank the editors of the Ameri- 
can Journal of Sociology for permitting me to use again 
material that has already appeared in its pages. 

But in presenting the following glimpses of women 
at work, I must acknowledge my great personal indebt- 
edness to the one to whom the whole study is due — 
Miss Grace H. Dodge, President of the National Board 
of Young Women's Christian Associations, one of the 
stanchest friends the working women of the country 
ever had. Her appreciation of difficulty, her constant 
encouragement and counsel, caused the hardships of 
the task to vanish, and only the joy in achievement to 
remain. 

ANNIE MARION MACLEAN. 

New York City, 
January, 1910. 



INTRODUCTION 

The National Board of the Young Women's Christian 
Associations, organized December, 1906, has for its pur- 
pose to unite in one body the Associations of the United 
States ; to develop and unify such Associations ; to 
advance the physical, social, intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual welfare of young women ; and to participate 
in the work of the World's Young Women's Christian 
Association. There are affiliated with it 190 city Asso- 
ciations, many with special industrial departments; 630 
student Associations in colleges and schools ; and five 
mill village Associations. 

Early in January, 1907, the National Board realized 
that before true progress could be made it was nec- 
essary, first, to study its own work as represented in 
the above Associations ; second, to investigate and 
study the possibilities lying before the Association 
movement throughout the country. As one means to 
this end, a Sociological Investigation Committee was 
formed, and had the pleasure of asking Dr. Annie 
Marion MacLean, professor of sociology, Adelphi Col- 
lege, to act as director of the investigation, with an 
advisory committee of the following : Dr. C. R. Hen- 
derson, University of Chicago ; Dr. Carl Kelsey, Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania ; Dr. Amy Hewes, Mt. Holyoke 
College ; Miss Clare de Graffenried, Washington ; and 
Dr. C.A. Ellwood, University of Missouri. 

These busy friends most generously gave time, thought, 

ix 



x INTRODUCTION 

and effort to make the work complete and successful. 
It gives me pleasure, in behalf of the National Board, 
to thank most heartily, not only this special committee, 
but also the many other committees and individual 
workers in social questions, as well as organizations, 
who have so willingly cooperated in the work; fur- 
ther, to thank the president and trustees of Adelphi 
College, who for months gave free use of college rooms 
for the investigation headquarters ; also to express to 
the donor of the fund which made the work possible 
the appreciation and thanks of the Board. 

It would have been hard to find a stronger or wiser 
director of the investigation than Miss MacLean. She 
has for years been in sympathy with the Association 
movement, and recognized that much more could still 
be done by the Associations in the way of meeting the 
obligations resting upon them. Further, Miss MacLean 
has long been an earnest student of sociology and is 
the enthusiastic head of the growing department of 
sociology in Adelphi College. She showed in every 
detail of the investigation, wisdom, economy, and a 
cooperative spirit. The results of the year's study 
were given from time to time to state and territorial 
committees, and the vast array of papers, statistics, 
and special reports is now in the offices of the 
National Board. The demand came not only from 
Association friends, but also from others, to have at 
least some of the results of the investigation in more 
permanent form, and therefore this book, prepared by 
Miss MacLean, is presented to all those interested in 
wage-earning women. The book naturally covers only 
a limited range of the great subject and has not touched 
many phases. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

Some years ago in a gathering of wage-earners, cer- 
tain young women were present who were very " busy 
girls," but not weekly earners. The question was 
asked, " How can Miss be a member of a Work- 
ing Girls' Club?" Quickly a voice came from the far 
end of the room, saying, " Of course she can be a mem- 
ber, and an important one, for she has had her wages 
earned for her in advance, and so she should do more 
for the Club than those of us who are receiving weekly 
sums." This answer contains a great truth and has 
often been amplified. All over the land there are 
thousands of young women who have had " their wages 
earned for them in advance " by grandfather or father. 
They have time, and owe it to their laboring sisters to 
share with them their leisure, means, and selves, cooperat- 
ing together, not working for, but with. Knowledge 
gives confidence and power. 

It is earnestly hoped that this book will be studied 
by thousands of those who have had " their wages in 
advance," as well as by hundreds of others, and that 
from the study will come a desire to work with the 
wage-earners, in bringing to all fresh inspiration and 
a deeper meaning of life. The motto of the National 
Board is, " I am come that they might have life, and 
that they might have it more abundantly." The One 
who thus promises the abundant Life has honored us 
by allowing us to be colaborers with Him. 

To repeat, it is hoped that the facts contained in this 
book may so impress many that they .will have confi- 
dence and power in trying to bring a fuller life to the 
brave and great army of wage-earners, found not only 
in this country, but in other parts of the world. 

GRACE H. DODGE. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface . , . . . . « • vii-viii 
Introduction ix-xi 



CHAPTER I 

Scope and Purpose of Study 1-9 

No effort made to center on several great industries 
and follow their course in different sections of the country, 
for this has been done by other bodies, notably the gov- 
ernment — Desire rather to learn a good deal about many 
women with a view to stimulating efforts in their behalf 

CHAPTER II 

Women Workers in New England .... 10-30 

Original home of the factory girl — Numbers — Chief 
industries in which employed — Selection of certain 
trades here — Paper, shoes, textiles — Conditions of 
work — Type of workers — Wages 

CHAPTER III 

The New York Worker ...... 31-54 

At her best and at her worst — Total number em- 
ployed — Variety of occupations — Many nationalities — 
Ensuing difficulties — Women in specified industries — 
Textiles, clothing, paper goods, department stores 
— Conditions of labor — Wages — Statistics — Better- 
ment undertakings — Charts showing (1) Nativity, 
urban or rural ; (2) Rural nativity, reasons for coming 
to city, etc. ; (3) Working conditions ; (4) Social life ; 
(5) Statistics 

xiii 



xiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

PAGE 

The Chicago Worker 55—73 

The girl in the factory — As a garment maker — Paper 
worker — Electrical worker — Saleswoman — Statistical 
comparisons with New York — Interest of community — 
Homes — Clubs — Unions — Settlements 

CHAPTER V 

Women in New Jersey Towns 74-84 

Many toilers — Conditions in silk mills — Thread mills 

— Potteries — 38 mills — 7500 workers 

CHAPTER VI 

Women Toilers in the Middle West . . . 85-98 

Special groups — Making clothes, buttons, and beer in 
Iowa — Making clothes and thread in Michigan — Con- 
ditions — Wages — Needs 

CHAPTER VII 

Hop Picking in Oregon 99-115 

Seasonal employment — Field for women — Living 
conditions — Wages — Difficulties 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Fruit Industries of California . . . 1 16-129 

Growing field for women — Character of work — Liv- 
ing arrangements — Wages — Problems 

CHAPTER IX 

Women in the Coal Fields of Pennsylvania . 130-159 
Social conditions of women who live in the mining 
centers — Drudgery at home — A study in foreign popu- 
lation — Difficulties to be met — Dearth of opportunity 

— Needs outlined — Suggestions for improvement 



CONTENTS xv 

CHAPTER X 

PAGE 

Uplifting Forces 160-174 

Investigation — Trades unions — Legislation — Wel- 
fare work — Social settlements — Working girls' societies 
— Housing — Young Women's Christian Associations — 
Many still not reached 

CHAPTER XI 

Suggestions for Improvement 175-180 

The chief needs — Larger social life — Greater effi- 
ciency — Legitimate recreation — Cooperation where 
possible — Suggested programme 

APPENDICES 

I. List of Investigators 181 

II. Schedules 184-188 

III. Statistics relative to Women Wage-earners in the United 

States 189-190 

Bibliography 191-198 

Index 199-202 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

CHAPTER I 

Scope and Purpose of Study 

In a recent discussion of the difficulties inherent in in- 
dustrial adjustment, Mrs. Florence Kelley said that there 
are no more shifting data than those which concern em- 
ployment, and this belief must be shared by all who have 
thought carefully about the subject. She further said, in 
elucidation of her statement, "One thing was true, for 
instance, Wednesday evening at five, but something hap- 
pened to change it all by Thursday morning at ten." 
Here is a specific instance of this which came to the no- 
tice of the writer. A certain factory had for some time 
employed ninety stenographers, all girls ; but the policy 
of the company suddenly changed, and the girls were re- 
placed by men over night, thus lessening by one the 
number of establishments employing women in that town, 
and subtracting ninety from the total number of women 
employed. Such occurrences soon render the statisti- 
cians' statements false, but what is infinitely more serious 
they render the worker's life precarious. 

This state of industrial flux, pointed out by a trained 
observer like Mrs. Kelley, is one of the conspicuous hard- 
ships which women workers have always to face, possibly 
to a greater extent than men, on account of their weaker 
bargaining powers. A semi-romantic interest is often 
attached by those away in the distance to the girl who 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

guides a machine and banters her comrades the while, 
but when the truth is known, she leads a very unromantic 
life, full of grim realities which she meets often enough 
with heroism. 

The chapters which follow are designed to give only 
glimpses of these women wage- earners as they toiled in 
different parts of the country, during the year 1907, and 
mainly in the summer and autumn rnonths before the 
effects of the financial stringency were observable. The 
investigation upon which these glimpses are based was 
undertaken primarily that officers and workers of the 
Young Women's Christian Associations might know more 
about the young women whom they would serve. But it 
was also hoped that others who had made no special 
study of industrial life might become acquainted with 
some of its varied phases, and thus develop interest in 
local situations, at least. 

The needs of the associations, however, became the 
dominant factor in determining the sections of country to 
be studied. The entire time might have been spent in 
following one great industry to its various centers, but 
such a course would not have satisfied the needs of the 
organization responsible for the investigation. 1 The desire 
was rather to learn a good deal about many women in various 
trades with a view to stimulating efforts in their behalf. 
The industries 2 selected in each place were the half dozen 
or more employing the greatest number of women. 

As a matter of fact, however, certain kinds of work, 
such as the clothing trade and making of textiles, stand 
out rather prominently in many of the cities investigated 

1 It was known that the federal government would undertake an 
exhaustive study of several great industries a few months later. 

2 No study of sweat-shops was undertaken. 

2 



SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF STUDY 

because they happen to be conspicuous everywhere in util- 
izing the services of women. 

That woman is continually entering new occupations is 
true, but it is likewise true that she clings to the long-estab- 
lished ones, and is found in greatest numbers in these. 
Certain physical limitations tend to direct her choice. 
Where unusual strength is required, woman cannot be 
advantageously employed, but where endurance is a req- 
uisite, she is economically desirable. The average girl 
could not mine coal, fit joists, or clean sewers, but she 
can sell notions for ten hours a day, and stand all the 
time, paste labels on cans month in and month out, and 
tend looms day after day for years. The effect upon her 
health may eventually be as disastrous as if she had en- 
gaged in the heavier labor, but she can, at least for a 
time, be serviceable to her employer. The sexes are 
thus naturally absorbed by the industries in which they 
can be utilized most successfully. Even when working in 
the same industry, they will generally be found employed 
in different processes, and so it transpires that women are 
doing about the same things in the manufacturing indus- 
tries in the east as in the west. Sometimes we saw them 
side by side with men, more often they were in large or 
small groups by themselves. But whatever the arrange- 
ment, there was always the nerve-destroying strain that so 
often turns girls into haggard creatures at thirty, and de- 
prives them of their heritage of health. 

The investigation dealt with women in widely scattered 
regions from New York City to the Pacific coast, includ- 
ing typical mill towns in New England and New Jersey, 
the mining regions of Pennsylvania, the great industries 
of Chicago, certain small cities of Michigan, and the great 
Middle West with developing manufacturing interests, and 

3 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

the seasonal work of picking hops in Oregon, and picking, 
drying, packing, and canning fruit in California. The 
National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associ- 
ations had already made studies of Southern mill villages, 
so the South was not included in this survey. 

The following table shows in detail the cities and indus- 
tries studied : 









Women 1 


Place 


Industries 




Employed in 

Establishments 

Investigated 


New York 








New York City 


Clothing 




5000 




Electrical supplies 




750 




Cigars, candy, etc. 




2400 




Printing and paper 


goods 


IOOO 




Textiles 




2000 




Stores 




15,000 




Laundries 




300 


New Jersey 








Jersey City 


Watches 




500 




Food and cigars 




1275 




Paper boxes 




200 




Soap, perfume, etc. 




140 




Textiles 




I50 




Pencils 




150 




Laundry 




I20 


Newark 


Clothing 




1650 




Rivet works 




ISO 




Printing and paper 


goods 


500 




Shoes 




l6o 




Cigars 




300 


Paterson 


Clothing 




800 




Textiles 




650 



1 Round numbers are used throughout. 

4 



SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF STUDY 



Place 


Industries 


Women 

Employed in 

Establishments 

Investigated 


Trenton 


Potteries 




New England 

i. Massachusetts 






Springfield 


Clothing 
Metal-working trades 


400 
200 




Cigars and candy 
Printing and paper goods 
Wood fiber manufactures 


300 
650 
300 




Textiles 
Stores 


300 
300 


Ludlow 


Jute yarn 


1400 


Holyoke 


Printing and paper goods 
Paper manufactures 
Textiles 


450 
1500 
4000 


Lowell 


Textiles 


12,000 


Lynn 


Shoes 

Electrical supplies 


2000 
2200 


Fall River 


Textiles 


15,000 


2. Rhode Island 






Providence 


Jewelry making 


1000 


3. Connecticut 






New Haven 
% 


Clothing 

Metal-working trades 
Printing and paper goods 
Rubber goods 


1400 

2300 
150 
750 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 



Place 


Industries 


Women 

Employed in 

Establishments 

investigated 


4. New Hampshire 






Manchester 


Shoes 


l600 




Textiles 


7800 


Pennsylvania 


Mining regions 1 




Illinois 






Chicago 


Clothing 
Metal-working trades 


IOOO 

2200 




Printing and paper goods 

Stores 

Mail order houses 


750 
17,500 

4000 




Telephone operating 


4200 


Elgin 
Michigan 


Watches 
Publishing 


1800 

125 


B elding 


Silk thread 


750 


Jackson 


Clothing 


900 


Iowa 






Des Moines 


Clothing 

Food 

Textiles 


300 

75 

275 




Stores 


500 


Dubuque 


Clothing 

Cigars and breweries 


700 
250 


Muscatine 


Buttons 


500 


Nebraska 






Omaha 


Clothing 
Meat packing 
Stores 


800 

350 
900 



1 A special study was made of the living conditions of the women. 

6 



SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF STUDY 



Place 


Industries 


Women 

Employed in 

Establishments 

Investigated 


Lincoln 


Clothing 
Laundries 


170 
H5 


Missouri 






Kansas City 
Lead Regions 1 


Clothing 

Food and meat packing 

Stores 


550 
900 

400 


Oregon 


Hop fields 




California 






Fresno 
San Jose' 


Fruit picking, canning, 
drying, and packing 

Fruit picking, canning, 
drying, and packing 


2000 
IOOO 


Oakland 


Clothing 

Fruit canning, etc. 

Lithographing 

Gloves 


50 

IOO 

75 


San Francisco 


Clothing 

Fruit canning, etc. 

Glass 

Paper boxes 


400 

800 

40 

40 



The plan, as outlined, was carried out by a staff of 
twenty- nine women 2 holding degrees from seventeen 3 

1 A special study was made of the living conditions of the women. 

2 See Appendix I for names of investigators. 

8 Acadia, Adelphi, Bellevue, University of California, Carleton, Uni- 
versity of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, University of Michigan, Mount 
Holyoke, Oberlin, University of Oregon, RadclifTe, Syracuse, Wellesley, 
Wilson, Woman's College of Baltimore. 

7 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

colleges. Of these, eight have advanced degrees from 
universities in this country or in Europe. Several of the 
investigators had had practical experience in investigating, 
while all had had more or less theoretical training. The 
entire staff, including office force, at work during the 
progress of the investigation numbered forty. 

The field work of the investigators commenced June 10, 

1907. On that date, two entered upon the Pennsyl- 
vania study and one began in New England. On the 
17th of June, one started in New York. With these 
exceptions, the main body of the work opened July 1. 
The investigation in the Far West began in Septem- 
ber owing to the seasonal character of the industries 
selected. The last of the field studies closed May 31, 

1908. The actual time spent in the investigation outside 
of office work was a total of 208 weeks, or the equivalent 
of four full years 7 time of one worker. 

The study was carried on in accordance with a set of 
five schedules * and specific instructions. Schedule I 
asked for certain confidential information from representa- 
tive employers. Schedule II sought general information 
in regard to population, nationalities, chief industries, 
women employed, and efforts in behalf of these women 
for each town or city studied. Schedule III was for use 
in the mining regions of Pennsylvania and Missouri. 
Schedule IV, " Homes for Working Women,' ' was intro- 
duced because the Young Women's Christian Association 
has maintained boarding homes for many years, and it 
seemed desirable to learn of all similar undertakings in 
the cities studied. The " subsidized boarding house," 
cooperative club, women's hotel, and the like, come 
under this head. Schedule V called for detailed informa- 

1 See Appendix II. 

8 



SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF STUDY 

tion concerning individual women in regard to working 
and living conditions and social life generally. 

In addition, an exhaustive study was made, in all the 
sections, of betterment undertakings for working women 
as found in social settlements, working girls' clubs, trade 
unions, the churches and other organizations contributing 
to the uplift of women wage-earners. The investigation 
was unique in character inasmuch as it was the first 
study of industrial life, national in scope, to be carried on 
by a body of college women at the instance of a definitely 
religious organization, and the story is told in the hope 
that it will awaken a more vital interest in a class upon 
which the burdens of life frequently rest heavily. 

In all, four hundred establishments employing 135,000 
women in more than a score of cities were investigated. 
The following chapters deal with a part of this long story, 
and the part chosen l should be of interest to those who 
care at all about the millions of girls who arise early and 
go forth to a weary day, spent in the main in making 
things that concern us greatly. By their toil life becomes 
easier to many of us, and while we enjoy the freedom let 
us not forget our young emancipators. 

1 General interest, coupled with the desire of the national organiza- 
tion responsible for the work, determined the choice. Material not in- 
cluded here has been used in other ways. 



CHAPTER II 
Women Workers in New England 

It seems but fitting that this study of women wage- 
earners should begin in the section that gave us the origi- 
nal factory girl, for it was in New England that women 
and girls first went out in large numbers to work with their 
husbands and fathers and brothers in the mill. They fol- 
lowed the industries from the fireside to the factory. It 
was a natural movement stimulated in many cases by ne- 
cessity. At that time public opinion frowned on the idle 
girl, and work was considered a crowning virtue ; so the 
factory girl was not commiserated but commended. Things 
have changed in the last century, and now we find most 
people of humanitarian instincts looking with regret at the 
spectacle of young girls marching to the mills. The pro- 
cession is a long one now in the old New England towns, 
and it is growing longer with the years. 

Women are found in practically all the industries, but the 
extent of their employment in the textiles, shoes, and paper 
goods renders a discussion of conditions in these trades of 
especial interest. The making of paper was studied in 
western Massachusetts chiefly, the centering of the work 
in this section making it a most desirable starting-point. 
Women in the shoe industry were studied in Lynn, while 
Fall River and Lowell furnished the story of the textile 
workers, and it is the purpose to narrow the story down 
to those engaged in the manufacture of cotton cloth, since 
this is a product so commonly used by everyone, and in 

10 



WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

the manufacture of which every woman particularly should 
have a vital interest. 

Cotton. — When Charles Dickens came to America, it 
was to Lowell he went to see the cotton-mills in operation, 
and it was of those mills he wrote his glowing picture of 
factory life for women. " They looked like human beings," 
he said, "not like beasts of burden." If he were to come 
to us to-day to see the cotton workers, he would, in all 
probability, be taken to Fall River first and asked to be- 
hold the product of the evolution of two generations. He 
would see no beautiful window boxes, no smiling girls 
making poetry as they worked, or moving about with songs 
on their lips. Life is grim in the Fall River mills and 
the women come perilously near having the mien of " beasts 
of burden." The semi-idyllic conditions of the early New 
England cotton-mill have given way to a system brutalized 
by greed and the exigencies of modern industry. The 
pressure of immigration upon the American worker is 
apparent here. Once, the fairly well-to-do farmers had 
daughters in the cotton-mills, girls who had gone to the 
factory towns to work and at the same time enjoy the ad- 
vantages of town life. The long day, sometimes drawn 
out to fifteen hours or more, seemed not to be particularly 
burdensome, and the freshness and buoyancy of girlhood 
were not lost in the toil. But this was before the days of 
the half-starved foreigner, able to exist on very little, and 
eager for work at any pay ; before the days of the great 
machines that virtually control men. The immigrant and 
the machine of great speed have pushed the native worker 
before them out of the mills, and into other occupations, 
and the change goes on. One alien race after another, 
lured to the mills, crowds the earlier arrival and underbids 
it oftentimes. The weaker ones grow poorer than before, 

ii 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

and the struggle for life grows fiercer. The ignorant for- 
eign worker is no match for the modern factory, and it 
crushes him before he understands the freedom of the new 
land. The women suffer most because they are not fitted 
by nature to bear the strain. They are weakened, and their 
little children die before their time. It is a hard life, a 
cruel life, that is lived by the cotton-mill operatives to-day. 
Long hours at sinew- and nerve-breaking speed, coupled 
with uncertainty of employment and consequent lack of 
security of even a meager income, tend to dwarf the in- 
dividual morally as well as physically, and the dull, hard 
faces of the workers should excite no surprise. 

In Fall River, there are one hundred mills under forty- 
two corporations. All but three of these make cotton 
cloth. The entire population numbers 104,863, and 16,1 70 
of these are wage-earning women sixteen years of age and 
over. Lowell, on the other hand, has several large cor- 
porations operating a great number of mills, each having 
from ten to twelve buildings and employing about 1 7,600 
people, 4931 of whom are women, and 1000, girls under 
sixteen. But the "spindle city," even though it employs 
so many people and is able to produce a mile of cloth 
every minute of the working day, must drop behind Fall 
River x in the value of her cotton output. 

In these cities, we majry observe the general processes 
of making cotton cloth, which are presented here in order 
that woman's part in the industry may be better under- 
stood : (1) After the cotton bales have been opened by 
men and " mixed," that is, tossed or pulled apart some- 
what, with occasional help from lower-class immigrant 
women, the raw material is put through the first machines 
in the card room to be picked or cleaned and comes out 
1 And also behind Philadelphia, 
12 



WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

"picker lap." This is men's work almost entirely. 
(2) The "lap " put through carding-mac nines, very largely 
by men, becomes " card sliver " ; then (3) is drawn finer, 
into " drawing sliver,' ' and (4) is drawn out still smaller 
and wound on " slubber bobbins," very often by men. It 
then (5) continues on the speeder frames to be drawn out 
more and more and wound in turn on " intermediate 
bobbins," then (6) on " roving bobbins," and (7) on 
" fine roving bobbins." It is finally (8) put on the ring 
spinning frames, tended usually by women and children, or 
on "mules," tended always by men, and spun into warp 
or filling. 

In the card room, women tend the speeders of all grades, 
and girls generally are the dofTers, that is, they remove 
the full bobbins and replace them with empty ones on one 
frame after another. 

(9) The spun warp yarn is wound off on spools on 
frames outwardly similar to the speeder frames — women's 
work, usually done by younger women and under cool 
and pleasant conditions. 

(10) The spools are then placed on racks and wound 
off on great rolls by machines, tended by young women, 
who ordinarily have chairs which they can use at times. 

(n) The resulting warp goes through the great hot 
"slashers," always tended by men, usually and preferably 
more or less partitioned off, and is thus "starched." 

(12) The rolls of warp then go to the drawers-in, girls 
perched on stools, who, with a special little hook, draw 
the ends through the eyes of the loom harnesses. These 
ends are then tied in to go safely to the weavers. " Filling " 
goes directly to the weavers. 

(13) The weavers tend from four to twenty looms 
each, the former only in case of very fine or fancy weav- 

13 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

ing, the latter but seldom. Ordinarily, women tend six, 
eight, or ten looms, according to their own strength and 
skill, the kind of work, and the character of the loom. 
The drop-wire or stop-motion looms stop automatically 
if a thread breaks, and so do not necessitate such careful 
watching or quick work as the others. Complaint is made 
that weavers are called upon to tend too many looms so 
fitted, and also that the looms waste time by stopping for 
merely loosened threads. 

(14) Cloth-room processes come last, and in some 
mills are not found at all, one cloth room serving for a 
group of mills under one corporation. Here are trimmers, 
inspectors, and folders, who are all likely to be women 
except for an occasional man for the heavier lifting or 
other work the girls cannot well handle. Hours are shorter 
here, and wages the lowest in the mills. The trimmer 
sits or stands at will before a simple machine through which 
the cloth is rolled slowly enough for her to trim off loose 
ends or knots, or, stopping the machine, to mark serious 
defects which must have more elaborate remedy. The 
folders usually stand before machines which fold the 
finished product for the market. Inspectors also, as a 
rule, stand. 

Such, then, is the way in which cotton cloth is made, 
and it is seen that women are found in practically every 
stage of its development. The work is not easy, neither 
is it carried on under desirable conditions. One might 
suppose that certain difficulties for the worker necessarily 
inhere in the processes, were it riot for the light of mod- 
ern science — a light which has not yet permeated the 
gloom of most cotton-mills. 

Frequently the air is full of cotton fluff in the card 
room, and it is usually extremely hot in summer in the 

14 



WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

spinning rooms, where the rapidly revolving spindles gene- 
rate great heat. The weaving rooms are generally hot 
and always slightly damp. The necessary moisture is 
ordinarily supplied by spraying steam into the room. A 
few of the newer and more progressive mills use cold 
spray " humidifiers,' ' by which the temperature is kept 
automatically at 70 degrees throughout the year. In the 
average mill a temperature of 120 degrees in some rooms 
is not uncommon. 

Very few mills seem to have any improved ventilat- 
ing system; and draughts from the windows, especially 
the warm drying breezes of summer, make trouble 
with the work, causing threads to break both in spin- 
ning and weaving. The newer mills have, besides the 
usual two sashes per window, an upper small section 
swung on horizontal pivots, or horizontally hinged, so 
that it can open at an angle with the rest of the win- 
dow. The air, as a rule, is rather hot than close, there 
being so few people in each great room. In winter, the 
mills are heated by steam, with seldom any introduction 
of fresh air save through windows. There is some com- 
plaint of overheat and dampness. 

f The windows are always supplemented by artificial 

light, usually electricity, for the darker days, and dark 

hours of winter days. In basement weaving rooms, 

such as the " rat pit " of certain mills, or large rooms 

r in old mills, where windows are small, artificial light 

$ nust be used the major part of the day. Some of 

] he mills are experimenting with ground glass window- 

I panes for the sake of obtaining whiter light. Employees 

complain that this tires the eyes, and also exasperates the 

soul because of its opaqueness. 

Dressing rooms are unknown except for a little 

IS 

/ 1 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

screened alley between clothes hooks, seen in one mill. 
Women, as a rule, eat lunch sitting on the floor. Other- 
wise they sit on window-ledges, fire-escapes, door-sills, 
occasional boxes, and very rare chairs. 

Accommodation for retirement is uniformly lacking. 
Typically, the men's and women's toilets, both labeled, 
are side by side ; often their approaches are separated 
by a wooden screen perpendicular to their entrance 
wall. 

Seats are always provided for drawers-in ; practically 
always for warper tenders, who sit at times; seldom 
for spoolers or speeder tenders, who may sometimes 
sit on chance bobbin boxes ; almost never for spinners, 
whose frames are often so close that there is not a place 
for even a box anywhere except at the end of a very 
long row ; sometimes for weavers, — if the seats for these 
are fastened to the looms the vibration, nerve racking in 
any case, is tremendous ; always for trimmers ; occasion- 
ally for inspectors and folders. 

The working day is theoretically ioj hours, Saturday, 
5^- hours in all cases. The cotton-mill carries with it a 
story of a long and a hard day. The mills usually open 
about half-past six in the morning, and the complaint is 
general that workers are compelled to begin from five to 
fifteen minutes ahead of schedule time both morning and 
noon. 

Such, then, are the conditions under which many, 
thousands of women work in the cotton industry. T 
workers are merely the hands that make the machip 
go, and frequently they are not cared for as well as t* 
machines, because they are more easily replaced, — ^ 
easily replaced, indeed, that it is not necessary to coi 
sider them at all. 

16 



WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

It is instructive to consider the remuneration that 
goes with such work as has been described. The aver- 
age weekly earnings in the various grades of women's 
work appeared to be about as follows : 

DofFers $4-75 to $ 7.00 

Spoolers 5.00 " 8.00 

Fly-frame tenders of various kinds . . 7.00 " 9.00 

Ring spinners 7.00 " 8.00 

Warpers 8.00 " 10.00 

Drawers-in 8.50 " 12.50 

Weavers 9.00 " 18.00 

Certain of these averages, of course, indicate very good 
wages ; that is, on the assumption that work is steady, 
vhich is not always the case. One superintendent stated 
:hat the average weekly wage for all women in his es- 
tablishment was #7.11 ; another claimed $8.54; a third, 
$1 ; a fourth, $8 ; another, $7.61 ; still another, $7.75 ; 
md still others $9.17, $4 and $5.12. These figures do 
not tell of the dire need that exists among too many cot- 
ton workers, high wages in certain cases hiding the low 
in a fair average. 

Leaving these women for a time to the roar of their 
machines and the nervous strain always upon them, let us 
view the women making shoes for us. 

Shoemaking. — For two hundred years the making of 
shoes has flourished in Lynn. When the first shoemaker 
1 arrived, ten acres of land were voted him in recognition 
1 of the value of his services to the primitive little com- 
munity. It was the custom of the men he trained to 
travel from town to town and take up their residence 
with different families, staying long enough with each one 
to make a year's supply of shoes for every member. 
Gradually little shoe shops sprang up in Lynn and in 
c 17 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

them the trade was learned and practised. Many of 
these wooden sheds are standing to-day and are still known 
as " tenfooters." Perhaps it was the proximity of the sea 
which made it natural to give nautical names to so many 
things. At any rate, the working force is even now called 
the shop's "crew" and each man has his "berth/' not 
bench. The berths let for about a dollar a year in the 
early days and each shop had its "captain." They all 
contributed for fuel to heat the tiny place in winter, and 
they made from fifteen to twenty-five cents on each pair 
of shoes. 

f Farmers who tilled the fields in summer made shoes in 
winter, and long before the time of the middleman ex- 
changed them for goods at the Boston stores. The mev\ 
cut, lasted, and attached the soles in the shops, while the 
women bound them in their homes. " Nearly every 
woman had her shoe basket, containing uppers and lin- 
ings, and beside her ordinary household duties strove 
each day to bind a number of shoes. " These were the 
days of Lucy Larcom's " Hannah," 1 so widely and so affec- 
tionately remembered in this part of the country. 

But methods were soon to change. Before 1815, the 
shoes were all hand-made, the heavy ones being welted 
and the lighter ones turned. The shoe peg was intro- 
duced about that time. In 1845 machinery came into 
use in some places, though not in Lynn until 1852. Its 

1 " Poor lone Hannah, 

Sitting at the window binding shoes ; 
Faded, wrinkled, 

Sitting stitching in a mournful muse. 
Bright-eyed beauty once was she, 
When the bloom was on the tree ; 
Spring and winter 

Hannah's at the window binding shoes." 
18 



A WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

iU|advent inevitably meant large buildings and the factory 
y.hsystem. Even where the small shops continued for a 
i (time they received the upper and lower stock from the 
^factories, where the shoes were all finished. 
ie j ( Specialization has characterized shoemaking in its de- 
velopment, as it has almost every other industry. Be- 
tween seventy and eighty hands are required to make a 
v ^)air of shoes, and we find the cutters, closers, stayers, 
lPoxers, side-stayers, stitchers, liners, closers-on, turners, 
e )p-stitchers, eyeleters, and vampers — men and women 
all at work in the same factory. 

Unfortunately for the thousands of women employed, 
n .e industry is of a seasonal character, making the 
^atter of employment uncertain, since many hands are 
d^id off after the busy season. Indeed, it is said that 
m the shoes required for a year's consumption might 
^sily be produced in nine months. Even some of the 
;st stitchers, earning approximately $20 a week when 
brk is plentiful, leave the industry altogether for certain 
xit'onths of the year. In many instances during these 
I lonths women engage in dressmaking, domestic service, 
t a( husic teaching, in short, anything that presents itself. 
3 Women are employed chiefly in the stitching rooms, 
frhe heavier work, such as cutting the leather and attach- 
ng the upper to the sole, is done entirely by men. Be- 
sides stitching the linings, vamps, and uppers, a few girls 
and women are engaged in packing the shoes into boxes, 
^putting in laces and sewing on buttons by hand or ma- 
chine, repairing the patent-leather tip, cleaning and pol- 
ishing and " skiving ,f ; that is, preparing the edge for turning 
in at a seam. Stitching with single and double needle 
on the vamps requires skill and is well paid. This is also 
true of the closers-on and those who stitch the uppers. 

19 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

Stitching involves some eye strain but is comparatively 
clean work, and, except for the incessant noise of the 
machinery, is usually done under favorable conditions. 

There are in the whole country 36,490 women in the 
shoemaking business, and it is estimated that about one- 
third of these are in Lynn — a number large enough tc 
be of considerable significance. Twelve thousand women 
would normally mean 12,000 families now existing or tf 
be established in the future, and too much interest car 
not be evoked in the character of the work engaged ; * 
by so many actual or potential mothers, and in the mone 
return made to them. 

In connection with the question of wages the season/ 
character of shoemaking should not be forgotten. T 
average wage for individuals is probably very seldom 
average for fifty-two weeks. Besides the general flux | 
the trade, there is often a secondary shift between t- ! 
different departments of a factory. If the cutters wo e 
faster than the rest, then some of them must be laid fl 
until the stitchers can catch up with them. This may n 
an hour, or several hours, or even days, and the same 1 
true of each successive process. 

This loss of time, however, varies greatly from factor 
to factory. One manager says that such delays show bad 
management, and that it is quite possible to have a defi 
nite number of shoes turned out in a day, so that each 
worker knows in the morning how much is ahead of her 
Then it is the manager's business to get the various kinds 
of workers so adjusted to each other that there will be no 
waiting necessary at any stage of the process. If a swift 
worker comes on, or several swift ones, so that certain de- 
partments get ahead of the others, one of the weaker 
women can be dropped and thus the balance regained 

20 






WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 



Under this system of a definite number of shoes a day, 
he earnings become practically a day wage. 

These delays, however, occur in a great majority of 

ketones in spite of expert testimony that they are un- 

lecessary. The existence of this system greatly modifies 

he seeming good pay of some workers, as, for instance, 

he stitchers, who on full time earn from $10 to $16 and 

ven $18 and $20 a week. Of course, the unskilled 

workers and those paid by time suffer also from the un- 

tenness of the work. Outside the big factories, there is 

lost always a sign calling for different operatives, 

anted — tip-fixer, foxer, vamper, etc.," and the labor 

ifts from place to place as it is needed. 

As in all piece-work, there is wide variation in the indi- 

idual workers, so that an average wage is not very signifi- 

jnt. Here, however, the average for women and girls 

la. good deal under $8 ; possibly for fifty-two weeks in 

* year it is nearer $6, the minimum and maximum wage 

?ng about $4 and $20. The best stitching makes the 

iiest appearing shoe ; and while a stitcher may get four 

g~ (its a pair for her work on the high-priced shoes, a 

thedium grade will bring only two cents, — yet in some 

ttases she may earn more money on the latter because the 

' haracter of the work permits of greater speed. Vamping 

b most difficult to learn, and work on the under vamp 

1 Jhoe now so much in vogue offers the best opportunity 

or profit. If allowed to work on this style all day a swift 

;vorker may earn $4 or $5 in ten hours. 

1 The wages for the different grades of work vary greatly. 

t)ne manager estimated them to run from $7 to $14, with 

the average for the whole number at $9. They also vary 

(slightly from shop to shop. In one factory employing 

1000 women, the vampers are paid one cent a pair for 

21 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

cheap shoes, and a cent and a half for costly ones, and a 
good vamper can do twenty-four dozen pairs of cheap, or 
twenty dozen pairs of costly shoes in ten hours, thus earn- 
ing from $2.88 to $3.60 a day. This is the most skilled 
and best paid work. The packers, who are among the 
lowest paid, get five cents a case of forty-eight pairs of 
shoes and pack from twenty-five to thirty cases in a day, 
earning from $1.25 to $1.50. The wages of the others 
run between these two extremes. 

The piece-work system seems popular in spite of th 
nervous strain, which is discounted because of the greatq 
freedom in time which it allows, and possibly it adds 
certain interest. The only complaint is when a limit 1 
placed on the amount which may be earned. This limi 
tation, however, is unavoidable when a limited amount c 
work is to be given out. 

The presence of many married women in the stitchir 
rooms should not be overlooked in a discussion of wage 
They often earn as much as their husbands. Frequent 
stern necessity keeps the wife at work, her wage beii 
required to maintain even a low standard of living. This 
sometimes means that very young children are left at 
home without care, and the mother has little choice be- 
tween deserting her home in the daytime or seeing hei 
children without sufficient food and clothes. On the othe 
hand, there is in Lynn a surprising number of women witr 
families who remain at work in order that they may enjoy 
more luxuries ; and the combined income of husband and 
wife makes possible a manner of living far ahead of that of 
the ordinary laborer. Many live in cottages very elabo- 
rately furnished, spend a considerable amount on amuse- 
ments, own pianos, fine clothes, and in one case, an auto- 
mobile. 

22 




WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

The conditions in most of the factories are fair. The 
nodern building is taking the place of the old frame 
tructure, though there still remain a number of two and 
hree-story wooden shops. Even in the new brick ones, 
.owever, floor space, which is very valuable, has in all 
;'ases been carefully utilized. Apparently there has been 
iOne to spare for dressing and lunch rooms ; and racks, 
[ith or without a partition around them, are made to serve 
ne former purpose. The sanitary arrangements fulfil the 
requirements of the law and little more can be said of them 
fcept in one or two instances. Toilets are insufficient 

[ number and poorly located, inasmuch as those for 

>men ordinarily adjoin those for men. 

Usually the employees are forbidden to use the freight 

?vators, the only kind in existence in any of the factories ; 

Inetimes they may do so at their own risk, and again 

^mission is given to ride up only. 

j[n shape many of the buildings are long, narrow tri- 
ples, with many windows. Even under such an arrange- 
ment, much work must be done by artificial light. When 
jas is used, the air is quickly vitiated, and this, added to 
he other unfortunate circumstances, tends to jeopardize 
he health of women in the shoe industry. 

Thus it would appear that women engaged in making 
[hoes have difficulties unknown to the cotton worker, while 
he latter is struggling along unmindful of this fact. 

There remains still another of the trio of industries con- 
ributing its quota of hardship and support to the New 

ngland working woman, and that is the paper group. 

Paper-making. — In 1900 there were, according to the 
ederal census, 8709 women at work as paper- and pulp- 
nill operatives. Approximately 3000 of these are em- 
)loyed in the twenty-eight mills in the city of Holyoke. 

23 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

The women's tasks are found mainly at the first and 1 
of the process of paper-making ; that is, in the rag roc > 
and again with the final operations in the finishing roc 1# 
From all over the country and from Europe, cotton r! s 
are brought, and the bales emptied for sorting by won * 
in the rag rooms. For the highest grade of paper, the / c 
are clean and white, such as come from shirtwaist fac 
ries. But there are also large quantities of rags of ev ' 
description from all possible sources, filthy to the last 1 " 
gree and dangerous to health. After the sorting and 1 
moving of foreign matter by the women, the rags are r 
and chopped by machines in the same room. Thes a 
the air with lint and dust, and the women wear ca; iS 
protect their heads, but there is no way of keeping'" 
dust from the lungs. In one or two of the newer r J f 
hoods and fans collect a good deal of it, the motiv' 
ing economic rather than sanitary, for the dust has jn- 
siderable commercial value. 

Practically no young girls are found in this workmd 
many of the older women are married. Since the% • 
torn of giving this work to married women prevail " ; i 
some places, they stay only seven and a half hours, \ 
then go home to their domestic duties. In spite of ev ,r 
reason for the contrary, the women appear to be in fay 
good physical condition for their ages. l 

After the paper is finally made, cut, and dried, it g-3 
to the finishing room for the platers and calencwers i\ 
to be ruled and counted. The plater girls have the ea, 
though monotonous, task of feeding in sheets of paper) 
the hot cylinders and taking them out on the other sic 
The calendrers place the paper between boards cover* 
with cloth, and then put it under high pressure to recei 
the imprint of the woven goods. This work is more lab 

24 



WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

rious, as it requires a good deal of lifting. The counter is 
. the most highly paid woman in the paper-mill, and though 
her task is not difficult, it calls for constant vigilance. The 
finishing processes are all clean and well liked by the girls. 
In paper-mills, as elsewhere, wages vary with the process 
and the skill of the operative, and are almost entirely paid 
by the piece, and so it is futile to estimate an average wage 
for all. The rag pickers earn from 80 cents to|i a day ; 
the platers and inspectors about the same ; calendars from 
#1.25 to $ 1 .40 ; and the counters $ 2 .00. In the work con- 
nected with making blank books, the average weekly earn- 
ings are as follows : beginners, $3.50 to $6; assemblers, 
$7 to $8 ; hand sewers, $8 to $9 ; and machine sewers, 
$10 to #12. 

I In the large paper-mills of Holyoke, about half of the 
Employees are women, and mainly native Americans, 
French Canadians, Irish, and Germans. Most of them 
have homes of their own, of one kind or another, and one 
does not observe the abject need that too often appears 
In larger cities, but many of them have no opportunity for 
self-improvement, or for proper pleasure. 

An examination into the housing situation in Holyoke 

v eveals most of the known varieties of tenements. Among 

Is pe oldest is the type of the square brick house, two and 

if :it iree and four stories high, with slanting roof, originally 

erected by the mill companies for their employees, a kind 

well known throughout New England manufacturing towns. 

Holyoke has not very many and they are scattered. They 

;ire without sanitary conveniences and the rooms are poorly 

Arranged. There are also the cheap frame cottages and 

r^rhe larger wooden tenement houses. These are sometimes 

Tound between two intersecting pairs of parallel streets, 

Ibuilt in behind the houses facing the streets. 

2 5 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

Boarding-houses of various kinds abound and all have 
changed greatly from the old days when they were run by the 
companies and under their regulations. Of a list of twenty- 
two, seven appear to be respectable and were so believed 
to be by the police matron, who, in this case, knows the 
situation intimately. Four of the same number have dis- 
tinctly unsavory reputations. Not one was in any degree 
attractive. Well-conducted boarding-houses or hotels for 
working women without other than the usual regulations, 
and run on a thoroughly business basis, are greatly needed 
in the city. The independence which is the right of the 
self-respecting woman who earns her own living will not 
be given up by the spirited mill girl, and any lack of 
opportunity for its exercise would keep away just the ones; 
who most need the right kind of home. 

But it may be safely said that a very small number of 
the women operatives live in boarding-houses. Most of 
the boarding is with private families ; and here it is very 
difficult to generalize, for conditions are so different! 
Often by making such an arrangement, a young girl se- 
cures a model home ; again it is far from what could bf, 
desired. The cost is rather uniformly $3 or $3.50 k 
week. 

The practice of lodging in one place and taking mesA^. 
in another is becoming very common. It is the youii $ 
girls living in this way who are most liable to meet temp- 
tations of various kinds. In some places where girls 
lodge, they are not allowed to have company in their 
rooms, therefore they meet their men friends on tbe 
street, and at less desirable places. 1 

But this is the dark side of the picture. In pleasing 
contrast is the newer type of tenement, where a higher- 
standard of living is maintained. In families having thretl 

26 



WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

or four workers, frequently the mother being one, the 
combined income permits a very comfortable mode of 
living. And a comfortable home should be possible for 
every woman who works, but by some strange turning of 
Fortune's wheel, ordinarily the woman who works the 
hardest has the poorest place to live, while she who does 
nothing frequently dwells in luxury. The women who 
make paper and shoes and cotton cloth for us are not 
crying for luxuries, but the thinking ones do wish for a 
chance to provide themselves with decent comforts, and 
it behooves society to help them to the attainment of so 
rational a desire. 

In several instances, employers who sought to improve 
conditions met with little success. In one case, a model 
lunch room was equipped and good fifteen-cent lunches 
served, but it was not well patronized, and in spite of 
every effort it won no popularity and had to be abandoned. 
Likewise, rest rooms were fitted up for the girls and smok- 
ing rooms for the men, but the furniture was abused, the 
magazines torn, and the employer feels that the employees 
were ungrateful and unappreciative, and is honestly at a 
loss to understand the situation. This is the usual story 
of such efforts. 

j Another employer, after meeting with a similar rebuff, 
states that he believes the Almighty decreed some of us 
tp work by brains and others by muscle, and that the latter 
class was made without the "virtue of appreciation.' ' 
Therefore, he thinks it is foolish to take the trouble to 
improve conditions. This is undoubtedly a pessimistic view 
cj>f the situation, but a view which the employer who ex- 
pects gratitude in return for his efforts is likely to take, 
iftie man who makes his factory as decent and pleasant a 
Iplace as his industrial processes will permit, should find 

27 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

satisfaction in the effort, and in the knowledge that his 
employees are not injured by their toil. 

In the paper-mills, the shoe shops, and the cotton fac- 
tories of New England, women are unduly fatigued by their 
labor, because a little more attention to the installation of 
improvements is needed. Noise, foul air, and a lint-laden 
atmosphere are doing their worst for the girls who must 
endure them, and it is socially desirable that these reme- 
diable ills should cease, regardless of the fact that the 
women concerned might give evidence of lack of apprecia- 
tion of the change. Their main interest centers on wages, 
and anything contributing to a real or fancied reduction 
of their earnings will inevitably be viewed with distrust. 

Many agencies are actively engaged in trying to make 
life brighter and better for the New England workers., 
but their task is not simple. Lack of interest and weari- 
ness on the part of the toiling women prevent a rapid 
extension of educational work, and the barrier of a foreign 
tongue is sometimes insurmountable. Club and class acj 
tivities frequently demand more intellectual effort than the 
working women can give. Agencies offering exciting 
pleasures meet with more ready response. Cotton-mill 
women particularly are deadened by their work, and the 1 
need wholesome recreation at night. Much that is unj 
wholesome is already at hand. 

In a canvass of 1289 women working in in establish- 
ments in 8 New England towns, it was found that 12 peir 
cent were making use of opportunities for study which ir|- 
cluded various types of instruction, from music and French 
to embroidery and cooking. Sixty-one per cent of the 1281 
women were under twenty-five years of age, and 79 pej 
cent unmarried, and 60 per cent native Americans. 

The Americans generally avail themselves of opportu) 

28 



WOMEN WORKERS IN NEW ENGLAND 

nities for self-improvement to a greater extent than the 
foreigners, with the exception of the Jews, 1 but their wages 
are not perceptibly higher than those of the illiterate Euro- 
peans who have pushed their way into the mills. It is true 
that the natives are rarely found in the most menial types 
of work, such as rag sorting, but they must compete with 
the foreigners in practically all the other processes. 

([Twenty- eight per cent of all the women interviewed 
earned less than $7 a week, with a minimum of $2.50 
when work was fairly regular. That an overwhelming 
majority of the 1289, in all 1021, lived at home, is true, 
but of this number 92 per cent contributed to family sup- 
port, either by a direct payment for board or in other 
ways. We found the girls working for " pin money " a 
negligible factor. The women were working from eco- 
nomic compulsion. Instances where this is not the case 
are made much of by those who see only lower profits in 
any agitation to increase wages. No intelligent person 
would undertake to support the position that girls can 
live decently and comfortably in Fall River, Lynn, Hol- 
yoke, or Lowell on an average income of $4 or even $5 a 
week. Subsidized boarding-houses may help them to do 
this, yet the ultimate effect of such continued assistance 
must be deleterious to morals. Cooperative undertakings 
on a self-supporting basis are not open to this criticism. 
Working conditions can never be called good while wages 
do not permit the woman a self-respecting existence. 
Every effort to brighten the lives of women wage-earners 
should be commended, but futile indeed will such efforts 
be if they disregard the urgent need for a living wage, 
without which women cannot rise. 

Long hours and unsanitary workshops can be, and 

1 Of the 1289 cases, only 2 per cent were Jews. 
29 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

sometimes are, prohibited by law, but the all-important 
question of wages must be left to other forces. The mill 
women, themselves, in some instances, are banding to- 
gether in organizations for this purpose, and they should 
be aided in their struggle. Their somewhat militant 
methods may be subject to censure, but the principle 
involved is sound. The days of Lucy Larcom and the 
spindle poets are gone, but a new day of shorter hours 
and higher wages will dawn, when all the betterment 
forces in New England will realize that women's lives are 
more valuable than paper, and shoes, and cotton cloth, 
and will combine not only to make the laborer worthy of 
her hire, but to see to it that the hire is adequate to the 
needs of modern life. 



30 



CHAPTER III 
The New York Worker 

A field of unusual interest, so far as the employment of 
women is concerned, is presented by New York. Here 
we find the highest prizes in the industrial world ; here 
the most abject misery that can be evolved from a system 
of virtual wage slavery. It is here that we seethe former 
cash girl earning $6000 a year as foreign buyer for her 
firm. It is here that behind still other counters, girls are 
receiving $ 2. 50 or $3 a week and growing weary of the 
futile effort to be respectable. In this big city, a fore- 
woman in a clothing factory may earn enough to support 
a family in comfort, and in the same great metropolis her 
sister worker makes but two cents and a half an hour, 
hemming by hand a little garment for a baby. Nation- 
ality presses on nationality ; physical strength presses on 
weakness ; while efficiency constantly pushes against in- 
efficiency, and through it all the average girl who works 
for a living fights hard and often in a losing contest. 

Many studies have already been made of phases of the 
life of wage-earning women in New York. Many more 
might still be made without exhausting the subject or ex- 
hausting the interest of thinking people. The girl who 
works is everywhere announcing herself by her presence 
and demanding by her very helplessness that people stop 
to consider her. New York City furnishes nearly 400,000 
of the upwards of 5,000,000 self-supporting women in the 
entire country, and these are in practically all the great 

3i 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

industries represented in the city. As manufacturing 
processes become more and more specialized, woman ex- 
tends her industrial boundaries, and the first city in the 
country offers constant opportunity for this extension. 

This chapter deals with the working conditions of 
27,000 women in 91 establishments in 7 distinct in- 
dustries, and gives a detailed study of 1476 of these 
women representing the different occupations. It is the 
purpose here to present a view of the average girl as she 
toils in factory or shop all over this great city. Others 
are presenting studies of special industries, so we shall 
simply give a quick survey of a large field in the hope 
that even a glimpse of the industrial life will stimulate a 
wider interest in the worker. 

Clothing. — The view may well begin with the clothing 
trade, which interests and concerns us all. Moreover, the 
centering of the trade in New York City makes a con- 
sideration of the conditions in this work of especial signifi- 
cance. The city now controls the clothing trade of the 
entire country, and utilizes in its manufacture the services 
of 1 20,000 people, of whom 70,000 are women. Very un- 
fortunate conditions accompany most phases of the trade, 
inasmuch as it readily lends itself to home work, with its 
long hours, low wages, and danger from disease. We 
made no effort to study the thousands of such "finishers," 
but confined ourselves to the factory operatives. Many 
of the workers are foreigners and live in the densely 
crowded quarters. A large proportion are Jewish, which 
is not surprising, inasmuch as the Jews control the manu- 
facture of clothing in New York City. 

Women were found operating power machines, pressing 
with heavy irons, examining the finished product for flaws, 
and designing; in some shops, doing everything, in ifact, 

32 I 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

but cutting, which is men's work, while in others, they 
were employed only for basting in linings, putting on but- 
tons, and the like. In the making of women's garments, 
there is more variety and more opportunity for specializa- 
tion than in men's clothes. For example, tucking alone 
keeps scores and scores of girls busy all day. The sewing 
on of fine laces requires considerable skill, as it must be 
done without basting. In spite of much subdivision, it 
would be an easy matter for any bright, ambitious girl to 
learn all phases of the work so that she could be shifted 
from one kind to another with the need, and thus be able 
to avoid idleness with its consequent limitation of income. 
Most of the workers, however, do not care to acquire 
this general skill, being satisfied, apparently, to learn 
their special tasks. An example of the extent to which 
subdivision of work is carried may be seen in the making 
of a plain cotton wrapper, on which nine hands besides the 
cutter are employed. More elaborate garments call for 
a proportionately greater subdivision. 

Many of the factories visited occupy lofts in high build- 
ings, and thus have light and air ; others occupy floors 
in one or several connecting buildings, frequently poorly 
adapted to the comfort or convenience of the worker. 
In the majority of cases, the dressing and toilet accom- 
modations were extremely poor, and in some instances 
a menace to health. Many of the girls worked amidst 
the direst confusion, material in all stages of completion 
being heaped up everywhere. Several managers main- 
tained that the girls were so untidy that it was impossi- 
ble to have an orderly shop, while others said the type 
of work necessitated disorder. 

Employees in the trade are paid almost entirely by 
the piece, although some shops have a few week work- 

i> 33 






WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

ers in certain processes. When a weekly wage is paid 
to beginners it seems to be uniformly about #3. The 
wages naturally depend somewhat upon the season but 
much more upon the worker's skill and swiftness. In 
one establishment employing forty girls there were found 
some who practically never made less than $11 a week, 
while the others average between $4 and $7. There is 
thus great variation in the weekly earnings with conse- 
quent heartburnings and discouragements. The girl who 
works hard sewing on buttons, and on Saturday gets only 
$4, cannot regard with equanimity her friend who stitches 
seams and earns two or three times that sum. The argu- 
ment that the latter is worth more to her employer 
makes no strong appeal, and she frequently grows sulky 
and chews her gum the harder while brooding over her 
wrongs. On the whole, however, the girls are a merry 
lot. They are young, and youth is ever hopeful. 

In the majority of cases, the wages quoted by the 
manager were somewhat higher than those vouched for 
by the employees. This does not necessarily mean that 
the employer wilfully misrepresented the case, but he 
undoubtedly gave the sum that it was possible for a girl 
to earn in her own particular line, provided the supply of 
work was constant. The actual earnings would fall far 
below this. Irritating delays are liable to occur, and the 
girl and her machine will be idle while the opportunity to 
earn precious pennies disappears with the minutes. 

An ever present source of complaint in many places is 
the time-honored custom of requiring each machine 
operator to pay for the thread she uses. She is obliged 
to purchase it from her employer, and often at a 
higher rate than she could secure it elsewhere. The 
necessity for having uniform quality does not seem to the 

34 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

girl sufficient ground for such a regulation, and, more- 
over, she cannot understand why she should pay for the 
thread used to sew the employer's goods which are sold 
by him, thread and all. Sometimes she strikes, because 
it seems so inexplicable, but she usually goes on paying 
for the thread. Older heads than hers have puzzled over 
this and have refused to be satisfied with the proffered 
explanation that it is necessary in order to prevent reck- 
less waste. It seems a good deal like compelling the 
cook to furnish the salt. 

^In one factory, where 300 women worked away and 
complained constantly about the thread injustice, there 
was a lunch room where good food was supplied by the 
firm at cost, and a pianola stood ready to give forth music 
while the meal was in progress. The employees regarded 
these evidences of good intentions on the part of their 
employers with ill-concealed suspicion. The pianola 
particularly offended them. They insisted it was bought 
with their thread money, and they reckoned to a nicety 
the proportion from each one that went into it. The 
thread deduction frequently amounts to more than a 
dollar a week. The employers, in turn, were exasperated 
by the girls' unappreciative attitude, and finally abandoned 
the undertaking. 

In some factories, the girls talked as freely as they 
could above the noise of the machines, but, on the whole, 
work was too serious to be coupled with much conversa- 
tion. Speed was the watchword, and to it each one 
hearkened, for speed means money; speed means pre- 
ferment ; and it may mean permanent work. That it 
may also become synonymous with nervous wreckage, 
premature age, and even death, is not considered in the 
mad race to turn out the finished product. This high 

35 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

rate of speed, continued throughout a day of nine and a 
half or ten hours in length, leaves its impression on even 
the most robust worker. There was little or no overtime 
required at the season in which this investigation was 
made, although it is an important item in the day's weari- 
ness at certain times of the year. The rush seasons in 
the clothing trade call for work at very high tension for 
unduly long periods. Then, the garment shops are the 
scene of incessant activity, and girls may be seen rushing 
to work early in the morning, pale and jaded from the 
former day's toil, yet glad that there is work to do. At 
night, almost numb from exertion, they look dully around 
for some relief for tired nerves, and too often find it in 
the glare of the street. But not all the tragic story of 
industry is found among the clothing makers. Others 
contribute their share. 

It is but a step from making clothing to the making of 
cloth and allied textile processes, so we may proceed to a 
consideration of the latter, and learn from the factories 
visited and the women interviewed, something of what 
work means to them. 

Curtains, Ribbons, and Twine. — We followed 2000 
women through twelve factories engaged in making things 
as widely remote as lace curtains and twine, and the 
working lives of these women may be best understood by 
giving glimpses of typical factories. For curtains, let us 
take two. 

The first occupies the third floor of a rather small 
building and the workers seem crowded together. The 
hand sewers sit in close rows about four deep, facing 
the light. There are only a few machines. Most of the 
women can sit at their work, but the pinners and press- 
ers have to stand. There are no dressing rooms, and 

36 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

the employees' garments hang on the walls of the work- 
room. Toilets are provided, but no lunch room. The girls 
eat in the same spot where they work, and it is a wonder 
that everything is not ruined. The work done here is 
beautiful, — all kinds of fine lace curtains are made, — 
but the place is very untidy. 

There are about seventy-five girls employed, and mos": 
of them are young, although there are a few older Italian 
women. There are some Americans, but they are being 
replaced rapidly by Italians. The girls do not seem to 
be as intelligent as one might expect in such light, clean 
work. Doubtless, the lack of conveniences, and general 
air of disorder, account for this. 

All the work is done by women. The curtains are 
designed by the superintendent, then cut, pinned, sewed, 
and pressed. Most of the sewing, which is appliqu£ing 
lace to net, is done by hand and is somewhat of a strain 
on the eyes. It is clean work and should be attractive, 
but the hours are long, from eight to six, with only a half- 
hour at noon. A fine is imposed for tardiness, and this is a 
constant source of annoyance. There is seldom overtime 
required in the shop, but the girls frequently take work 
home to finish. In this way they are deprived of sleep 
and find it a hardship to reach the factory at eight. 

The best workers here are able to earn from $7 to $9 a 
week by stretching out the day with home finishing of 
such parts as can be easily carried. 

The employees were unanimous in their condemnation 
of the management, and a very hostile spirit prevailed. 
"Ungrateful," the superintendent, a woman herself, called 
them. 

The second factory occupies one floor of a large 
building, well supplied with natural light and fresh air. 

37 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

The place is clean and orderly and not unusually noisy. 
The conveniences are not modern, but seem ade- 
quate. The cloak and retiring room is simply a corner 
screened off by packing cases, but it is private. There is no 
lunch room, but the girls make tea on a gas stove, cover the 
large work-tables with papers, and sit around them and 
eat in great sociability. They have three-quarters of an 
hour at noon, and work eight hours. There is no over- 
time at the factory, but special tasks are finished at 
home. The wages are no higher than those in the first 
establishment, but a totally different spirit prevails. The 
fifty women employed say the work is pleasant and the 
management most considerate. A week's vacation with 
pay is the reward of a year's service. 

The kind of work carried on in the two factories does 
not necessitate nerve-destroying speed at high-power ma- 
chines, and is undoubtedly more desirable than labor in 
a waist factory. 

Quite different in character is a twine factory employ- 
ing 400 women, which may be taken as a type. Here 
most of the women employed are forlorn and middle- 
aged, or young foreign girls, poor and without ambition. 
The latter are full of animal spirits, boisterous and rather 
unruly. 

The women are engaged in a variety of processes, 
yielding varied earnings. The work of the young girls is 
doffing ; that is, collecting the empty spools and replac- 
ing them with full ones, gathered from the machines in 
large boxes on rollers. This requires activity rather than 
skill. The pay averages about $4 a week. Balling the 
twine for the market is easier and pleasanter than 
doffing, and the rate is somewhat higher. Twisting and 
winding are also rather clean processes, and pay about 

38 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

the same as balling, that is, from $6 to $7 a week. Twist- 
ing consists in combining fibers into heavier strands by 
means of a frame. The twister must be always alert, 
walking from one end of her frame to the other, or 
broken threads will escape her attention, and the work 
will be injured. Winding the individual fibers on spools 
ready for the twister also requires watchfulness. The 
most disagreeable work is roving, which consists in hec- 
kling the raw flax just from the bales and full of dirt. 
Spinning produces some dust, but not so much as is 
found in the roving rooms. There it is indescribable, 
although the women say that they finally become so ac- 
customed to it that it does not cause coughing spells, as 
at first. Such work seems to have its effect on the per- 
sonal appearance and even modesty of the women. The 
older, and more abbreviated, and ragged, the garment, 
the more suitable it is, they think, for such surroundings. 

This particular factory is not so dirty as might be ex- 
pected, for sweepers are continually at work, but they, in 
turn, scatter dust freely through the air and on the ma- 
chinery frames and windows. It would seem that devices 
might be introduced for cleansing purposes which would 
obviate some of these difficulties. 

The nature of this occupation makes the employer 
dependent upon the most illiterate foreigner for service, 
as the better type of worker naturally seeks more desirable 
employment. 

In striking contrast to the place described is a ribbon 
factory where 250 women work. Many of them have 
been with the firm for years, and were in its employ 
when the factory was in the downtown district. They 
are neat in dress and ladylike in conduct, and perform 
their varied tasks with interest. 

39 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

The last process in preparing ribbons for the market is 
called blocking, and requires many women. It consists in 
winding the ribbon from the heaped-up mass to a firm 
position on a block or frame. 

Girls are also in the winding department, where quills 
and bobbins are filled with the spun and twisted threads, 
ctheady dyed, ready for the warp and woof. Quill wind- 
ing is the preparing of thread for the warp, and simple 
winding for the woof. The girls are kept busy joining 
broken threads, removing bobbins already filled, putting 
empty bobbins on the revolving axes of the machinery 
and attaching the thread thereto. Blockers get poor pay, 
as a rule ; skilful winders, the best, with the exception 
of the weavers. The average for the former is $4.50, and 
the latter |ioa week. Men are employed as warpers and 
spinners in this establishment. 

The factory is clean and orderly ; good drinking water 
is supplied ; signs are posted in regard to exit in case of 
fire ; the rooms are very light and airy, and not over- 
crowded ; lockers are provided for wraps ; and the toilet 
rooms are clean and spacious. The employers seem most 
considerate, and a good spirit prevails in the establish- 
ment. Yet it is no easy task the women are called upon 
to perform. They simply respond to fair, honorable treat- 
ment, and are willing to cooperate with their employers 
in turning out a good article under good conditions. 

We have had glimpses of women as they toiled in fac- 
tories large and small, factories good and bad, and as 
they pass from view, we see the hundreds of women look- 
ing to us for help. They want better wages in all cases, 
fairer treatment in some, and they need, in addition, 
shorter hours and better surroundings. 

One other class of workers, that which is concerned 

40 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

with paper goods and printing, will serve to illustrate ac- 
tivities different in character from those which have been 
described, and from this class we have taken the making 
of boxes, patterns, novelties of various kinds, and print- 
ing. 

\ v Paper Goods. — The making of paper boxes does not 
appear to rank very high, in the minds of working girls, 
as an occupation. Those in other paper trades, in bind- 
eries, for example, assert that box making attracts an 
extremely illiterate type of worker. There seems to be 
some truth in the assertion, if boisterousness and slat- 
ternliness constitute an element of this type. Several 
employers deplored the fact that many clever girls, who 
could make considerable money in box factories, go to 
the telephone companies for lower wages, because of the 
higher social standing of the telephone girl. It is true 
that many immigrants are in the box trade, and in the 
same establishment may be found Italians, Jews, Irish, 
Poles, Bohemians, and Germans, — all maintaining that 
they hate the trade. Box factories abound in or near 
tenement-house districts, where they have a constant sup- 
ply of workers always at hand. Some of these factories 
are clean, light, and airy, and provide separate toilets, 
dressing rooms and seats, while others lack all of these 
highly desirable things. The work generally done by 
women includes paste work of all kinds, stripping, label- 
ing, finishing, and "setting up." Pasting is not hard, 
but extremely monotonous, as it consists in machine feed- 
ing largely. Stripping or feeding the cut and bent boxes 
into a machine which fastens the sides together with pa- 
per strips, and requires some skill and swiftness to hold 
the board in place, seems to be a rather difficult process. 
The turning-in of the edges is done by hand by very 

4* 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

young girls. "Setting up" the box is accomplished by 
a somewhat dangerous machine process. When one girl 
was asked if she ever injured her fingers, her reply was 
that she would not rank as an experienced " setter-up " 
if she had not crushed them at some time or other. Her 
maimed hands testified to the truth of this story. 

The hours quite generally observed were from eight to 
half past five or six, with a half-hour for lunch. Several 
establishments observed a Saturday half-holiday during the 
summer, and one closed for the entire day. Overtime is 
usual, and is paid for. Vacations, if given at all, are in 
every case without pay. 

Wages are found to range from $4 to $20 a week, the 
latter sum being earned by several women who were 
"strippers," and put in a great amount of overtime. 
There are rush and slack seasons in this trade to influence 
the earnings, but some factories have a constant demand 
from certain large firms, and it is always safe to keep 
such boxes as they require in stock. There seems to be 
less slack time here than in some so-called " higher 
class " trades. 

It was observed that the girls were obliged to carry 
heavy piles of box boards some distance, even upstairs to 
their own work-tables. It would appear that this might 
be avoided by the use of trundling trucks and elevators. 
The odor of sour paste, so often found, is extremely dis- 
agreeable, and keeps some girls in a state of nausea which 
must ultimately affect the health. 

The other types of work in the group under discussion 
include publishing houses and pattern and novelty con- 
cerns, which may be best presented by describing typi- 
cal cases in each. To represent the first class, two es- 
tablishments may be taken, the one representing religious, 

42 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

the other secular, publications. In the first, only work 
of a religious character is done, — the issuing of Bibles, 
denominational publications, quarterlies, and books of a 
high moral tone. Every modern convenience is used, 
but the machines are very close together in some of the 
rooms, so that it is difficult to make one's way through the 
aisles. There is an elevator especially for the employees, 
and toilets and dressing rooms are provided. 

There are nearly a hundred girls here of varying de- 
grees of intelligence and social rank. The women do 
the usual bindery work, proof-reading, linotyping, and 
a few run hand-presses, which implies standing all day. 
The linotypers and proof-readers have nothing whatever 
to do with the bindery girls, making sharp discrimina- 
tions wherever possible. 

This is not a union shop, yet an eight-hour day, and 
half a day on Saturday in summer for all, is the rule, 
and a full hour is allowed for lunch. It compares very 
well with the other places visited. Printing religious 
matter is not different from printing anything else, and 
the conditions under which Bibles are made are simi- 
lar to those found in the printing and publishing of patent 
medicine advertisements. 

The second establishment prints books and magazines 
on contract, and is thoroughly modern in its machinery. 
There are no lunch or rest rooms for the women, but 
large tea and coffee urns are provided in the bindery, 
and one of the women is paid by the others to make hot 
tea and coffee at noon. They eat in the workroom, and 
so lack the stimulus of a change for even half an hour. 

In the bindery, the girls do all the gathering, both by 
hand and machine, the folding, pasting, stitching, and 
sewing. Much of this is purely routine work, but some 

43 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

of it, as hand gathering, is fatiguing, since it requires con- 
stant walking or standing. On the whole, the processes 
are clean, with the exception of pasting. 

A nine-hour day prevails for the bindery women, but 
in the summer it is lengthened to nine and a half, five 
days in the week, to make up for the Saturday half-holi- 
day. The proof-readers and linotypers have an eight- 
hour day. 

Wages conform fairly well to the union scale. Lino- 
typers and proof-readers earn from $21 to $23 a week. 

An establishment representing the making of paper 
novelties, such as pictures, frames, and postal cards, has 
good physical conditions, but the women are young, 
poorly paid, and seem tired and hopeless. One girl who 
sorts postal cards all day was asked why she did not seek 
other employment when this appeared so distasteful, and 
her reply was, " This is all I can do, — nobody else wants 
me." 

These girls crave amusement, but seem to be resource- 
less in the matter of finding diversions when work is over, 
and they are not in touch with the many organizations in 
the city which are trying to reach working girls. Their 
tasks are mainly pasting and sorting, both of which are 
extremely monotonous when pursued from half-past seven 
in the morning to six at night. They have a Saturday 
half-holiday in summer for which their pay is docked, a 
loss they can ill afford. Very few are able to earn more 
than $5 a week. 

These illustrations will suffice to show what factory 
work means to girls in New York City. Whether in 
making clothing, curtains, twine or boxes, or in printing 
Bibles or sorting postal cards, there is evident an intensity 
of work that saps the nervous force. Girls are rushing 

44 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

all day long. One sees them on the way to work in the 
early morning, hurrying on at full speed, and at night 
they are still nervously rushing, only looking more hag- 
gard than when the day's work began. But in spite of 
this weariness, many seek the stimulus of exciting pleasures 
and thus feel that they are getting something out of life. 

New York has a multiplicity of organizations and in- 
stitutions maintaining activities designed to benefit the 
girls who go forth to factory and shop, but, in spite of 
this, hundreds and hundreds of these young women have 
never heard that there are any places but questionable 
dance halls and the streets where they can go at night 
for rest as well as recreation. Many complain bitterly 
about starvation wages, who have never heard that women 
in some trades, perhaps even in their own, are banding 
themselves together in an attempt to accomplish collec- 
tively what they can never accomplish individually. Many 
know nothing of such things, but many more care nothing. 
The obligation of society toward them is not lessened, 
however, because of their ignorance or dull despair. Ef- 
fort must be redoubled, not relaxed. 

The investigation reveals the following facts in regard 
to betterment undertakings designed especially for young, 
wage-earning women in New York City. A fuller de- 
scription of the type of assistance provided is reserved for 
a later chapter where the chief movements in behalf of 
industrial groups are discussed. 

Settlement Activities. — The 41 settlements 1 of which 
a study was made represent 160 clubs for girls, with a 
total membership of 2058 for 33 settlements, the other 8 

1 The institutions included are those so denominated by the person 
in charge. The activities specified are only those for girls over four- 
teen. 

45 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

settlements giving no total membership of their clubs. 
Twenty-seven of the 41 settlements conduct classes for 
girls, with an enrolment of 289 for n settlements, the 
other 16 settlements not reporting the total class mem- 
bership. Twenty-seven of the 41 settlements send girls 
to summer vacation houses or camps or find boarding 
places for them in the country. 

Trades Unions. — There are 34 unions 1 in New York 
which admit women to membership. Thirty-two of these 
unions have a membership of 5989. 

Homes for working Women. — There are in the city 30 
special boarding homes providing accommodations for 1650 
women. These are designed to meet the needs of poorly 
paid girls and the rates are consequently low. 

Welfare Work. — New York has 20 establishments where 
welfare work for women employees is carried on. Some 
of the employers report only the provision of a lunch 
room for women, while others furnish rest and amusement 
rooms and conduct clubs and classes for both social and 
educational purposes, and maintain summer homes in the 
country where girls may spend from one to two weeks at 
a very moderate price. All of this seems to be, in most 
cases, an entirely honest effort on the part of the employer 
to make his wage-earners happier and more efficient. 
Where wages do not suffer by expenditure in such direc- 
tions, it would seem that the efforts should not be subject 
to criticism. 

Clubs. — The Association of Working Girls' Clubs has 
20 organizations here with a membership of 1093. 

The above shows the extent of some of the most im- 
portant betterment movements. All of this, of course, 

1 Since this book went to press, unionism received a great impetus 
through the shirt-waist makers' strike. 

46 



THE NEW YORK WORKER 

seems small when compared with the upwards of half a 
million women employed, and affords ample ground for 
the belief that much more might be legitimately accom- 
plished either in connection with existing organizations or 
by somebody not already in the field. 

The accompanying charts are introduced to render 
more graphic the detailed study of 1476 individual cases 
selected from seven leading industries. 

Charts I and II show the results of an inquiry into the 
nativity, urban or rural, of the workers grouped by na- 
tionality, with the general reason for coming to the city 
if the girl was of rural origin. But whatever this reason 
may have been, it was extremely rare to find any one 
expressing a desire to leave the not unmixed joys of city 
life for the quiet and calm of the country, assuming that 
some kind of a living could be made in either place. 

Chart III tells the story of working conditions in the 
factories, classified under three heads. Wages and hours 
of labor are not considered, the aim being to estimate 
physical conditions alone. 

Chart IV presents the situation so far as 1476 young 
women, arranged by nationality, are concerned, in regard 
to favorite amusements. This should stimulate interest 
in those 1 who are trying to provide decent amusements 
for wage-earning girls. 

Chart V tells the tale of opportunities for social life of 
the simplest character. Over 60 per cent said they could 
receive visitors at home, but in too many instances it was 
difficult to see where the girl could entertain even one. 
Others again, a small number, belonged to a club, a set- 

1 Since this study was made, valuable work has been done by the 
Committee on Amusements and Vacation Resources of Working Girls, 
Mrs. Charles Henry Israels, Chairman. 

47 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

tlement or a church, where they could meet friends. 
About 35 per cent sorrowfully said the only place they 
could meet men acquaintances was on the street or in 
more questionable places. There is a suggestion here 
for people anxious to aid the working girl. 

Chart VI consists of general statistics. The rather 
large number attending church is explained by a prepon- 
derance of Catholics. Nearly 45 per cent of the total 
number interviewed belonged to that church. The study- 
ing specified includes work along both industrial and in- 
tellectual lines, 4 per cent doing the former. It is a 
pleasing indication to find so many girls eager to improve 
themselves, and this should be an inspiration to non- 
wage-earners to extend opportunity in all directions. 



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54 



CHAPTER IV 

The Chicago Worker 

Chicago, like New York, presents distinct problems, 
and is not representative of any place but itself, except 
that, like all great cities, it is at once the opportunity and 
the undoing of the girl who works for her living in occu- 
pations crowded to the portals. The girl as she stands 
alone, whether in the east or the west, is a poor bar- 
gainer, and she is at best an unthinking creature in need 
of wiser guidance than the impulses of youth give her. 

Over 100,000 women contribute their labor to the in- 
dustrial life of Chicago. This is approximately about one- 
third the number of men wage-earners in the same city, 
and also upwards of one-third the number of women 
found at work in New York. The women working in the 
two cities are grinding away at pretty much the same sort 
of thing in the busy season and in the slack, and all strug- 
gling hard with the problem of making a living. 
'Our study in Chicago carried us into very large fac- 
tories, while in New York we followed girls into numer- 
ous comparatively small ones. In the former city, the 
big establishments remind one of the great places in 
New England employing many hundreds of women. The 
factories have grown up in congested foreign sections to 
a considerable extent, thus putting them within easy 
reach of cheap labor. Certain firms in the clothing busi- 
ness operate several factories in different parts of the city, 
thus getting cheaper help because no car fares need to be 

55 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

paid. Some have concluded that the employers thus 
effect a weekly saving in wages about equal to the car 
fare of each worker. If this be true, it would seem ex- 
cellent business management for the firms and quite as 
advantageous for the girl. But an ethical question might 
well be raised. Is not the value of the work performed 
the same whether transportation has to be paid or not? 
In a thoroughly organized trade such quibbling would 
not occur. 

The working conditions of 30,000 women formed our 
study in the second city in the country, — second in popu- 
lation, but third in the total value of manufactured prod- 
ucts. From the making of garments, the stores, and the 
metal-working trades, we can learn much of the women 
in whom our interest centers. There are statistical de- 
tails for 1 9 14 women in 52 establishments, and these are 
presented later to show tendencies in certain directions. 

First let us look at the garment workers as they toil 
through the long day in non-union shops. The shops or 
trades that are organized naturally have better working 
conditions and higher wages than those that are not, 
since the unions have established very definite standards 
in these respects. Our study was therefore confined to 
those establishments in which the workers had no such 
guarantee of immunity from the unfortunate phases of in- 
dustry as that furnished by union contracts. It is true, 
of course, that some non-union shops present as good 
conditions as union establishments can boast, but there 
can be no certainty of their continuance when the em- 
ployer alone has the power of determining the character 
of his establishment. 

Clothing. — This term is used here to include men's 
and boys' garments and women's underwear, and we 

56 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

confined ourselves to eight establishments employing 
approximately iooo women — a small proportion, it is 
true, of the full 30,000 women engaged in this industry, 
but the places visited were representative. Employers 
were extremely loath to allow any investigation to be 
made, and they seemed unduly sensitive on the wages 
question. It was possible, however, to learn much of 
a section of this most important industry so far as 
women are concerned. Employees were seen at their 
work places, and in their homes, and many of them 
talked freely upon what industrial life meant to them. 
Very few seemed satisfied. Their dissatisfaction was not 
always caused by low wages, or long hours, but by petty 
annoyances connected with the trade. As an example 
of the tyranny of offensive customs, the case of one rather 
conspicuous establishment employing about 300 women 
may be cited. Among the workers were the newly arrived 
immigrants from Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, but the 
majority were Poles, Bohemians, and Scandinavians born 
in the environs of their present workshop. A large per- 
centage of these speak English but little, and understand 
only the simplest words. It would be difficult to find a 
place with better physical conditions. The wages, too, 
are higher than those found in many factories, and there 
are seldom long slack seasons, but the rules of the house, 
the restrictions placed upon the employees, and the petty 
annoyances to which they are subjected are most distress- 
ing to girls who have the energy and intelligence to re- 
sent them. 

There was an oppressive atmosphere of dull, stupid 
endurance, and the faces of most of the women were piti- 
fully blank. There was abundant evidence of lack of 
opportunity for promotion, of ceaseless mechanical work, 

57 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

of colorless, uneventful lives, and all this with good physi- 
cal conditions and fairly good wages. "Girls are un- 
reasonable," said the employer; "what more can they 
want ? " They want an absence of fines for imperfect 
work for one thing, and the employer to furnish thread 
and needles for another. But he does not see the force 
of these old contentions. The buying of thread or 
needles or both is a constant source of irritation to the 
more intelligent workers of the needle trades in the West 
as in the East. In several Chicago establishments, this 
was found to amount to about $2 a week for those using 
one-needle machines, and it falls heavier on the two- and 
three-needle operators, who pay sometimes from $2.50 to 
$3 a week for their thread. It is the old, old story heard 
in various parts of the country, and filling the worker with 
a revolutionary spirit whenever it is told. The girls insist 
that the garment is sold with the thread, and the profit 
goes to the employer. An added grievance is that em- 
ployees are required to buy thread from the firm. When 
questioned about this one girl smiled satirically and an- 
swered : " Sure, that's the way they make their money. 
We could get it much cheaper at a store." 

Another thing which all resent is the lack of liberty. 
The piece-workers are especially rebellious because they 
are required to be ready for work at half-past seven 
in the morning on pain of dismissal, and because they 
cannot leave any time during the day they wish, or 
when work is so slack that there is nothing for them to 
do. They argue that since they are piece-workers, their 
presence in the factory should not be required when 
the firm has not sufficient work to keep them busy, and 
that they should not be compelled to stay in the building 
idle unless paid for their time. In one factory, a girl 

58 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

said : " I finished all I had to do three hours ago, and 
now I sit and fold my hands. My mother is washing at 
home and would be glad to have me there. I don't see 
why I should have to stay here when it does not do the 
manager any good or me either." 

Thus do they complain. They want first a chance to 
work, and then some voice in regard to the disposal of 
their time. In many factory processes, there are delays, 
often unexpected, and often unavoidable, which bring 
hardship to the piece-worker. The young girl cannot 
see why she should sit idle before a silent machine, when 
the alluring world outside is calling to her. In some 
places, girls are not permitted to go home for sickness 
unless it is an illness sufficiently serious to frighten the 
superintendent. One girl advanced the theory that it is 
because of fear lest they seek employment elsewhere that 
they are not allowed to leave during working hours. 

The week workers are really less restricted than the 
piece-workers. Many of them are little girls, finishers, 
packers, and inspectors, who laugh and sing while they 
do their work, and seem to feel restraint less than the 
older girls. 

In a corset factory, where there is a graduated piece 
rate for all operations, the girls insist that this rate is 
constantly being lowered by changes in fashion so that 
one has to work almost twice as hard as she did a year 
or two ago to make the same amount of money. The 
new- style garment is nearly twice as long as the old. 
The women receive the same rate for sewing the long 
seams as formerly for the short ones, and they say that 
whereas some of the best workers used to make $12 and 
$18 it is now impossible for a girl, working all the time 
at the highest possible speed, to make more than |io a 

59 






WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

week unless she has exceptional energy and endurance. 
This is only another instance of the hardships freakish 
changes in fashion have forced upon women in industry. 

The working conditions in most of the shops are gener- 
ally fairly good. They are clean enough and well lighted. 
The air is not bad in summer when the windows are open, 
but there seems to be little attempt at artificial ventila- 
tion, with the result that the rooms are often foul in winter. 
There are, however, few among the employees who seem 
to understand the necessity for fresh air. Even in sum- 
mer, there is a persistent odor, in some places, of gas from 
the gas iron, and when the doors and windows are closed, 
it is very distressing. This is especially true in the tailor- 
ing shops. It would seem that there is careless neglect in 
this matter. There ought to be some way of preventing 
the escape of gas. One of the girls working in such a 
place spoke of the difficulty she had in breathing during 
the winter. Like many factory girls she is afraid of draughts, 
and objects to open windows ; but she believes that if the 
foreman or some one in authority were to insist upon hav- 
ing the windows lowered a little at the top, the draught 
would not be serious, and the girls would stop wrangling 
over the subject. All through the year, the windows are 
closed before the employees leave at night and remain so 
until after work begins in the morning, if they are opened 
at all. 

In one place, there were two little Italian girls who were 
undoubtedly under fourteen years of age. In another shop, 
there were several Polish children who gave their ages as 
fifteen, but they were much younger, judging from appear- 
ances. These children cut and sewed on tags. Their 
work is not hard, and the foreman is considerate and kind 
to them, but they have to stand all day. When his atten- 

60 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

tion was called to this he said that they could not conven- 
iently do their work sitting, but he afterwards admitted 
that he had never thought how injurious constant standing 
might be to girls of that age and said he would provide 
seats for them. They are paid from $2.50 to $3 a week. 

Almost without exception, the girls said they spent their 
free time at home helping their mothers. Among the 
older girls there is strong class feeling. There are many 
newly arrived immigrants who do not speak English, and 
the foreman of one factory said that almost every day he 
hires a new girl who is still on the ocean. The immigrants - 
who drift into these shops are ignorant and dull, and too 
often the native-born are not far in advance. There are 
a few bright girls, some of whom are studying hard at va- 
rious things outside of their working hours, and many who 
say that they read a great deal, while others had never 
heard of the public library or its various branches. 

As has been indicated before, much discontent prevails 
among the workers in this trade. The chief complaints 
of the girls in the clothing establishments have not to do 
with wages, although in many instances there is seemingly 
good ground for complaint on this score. The weekly 
earnings range from $2.50 to $12, with an average in the 
neighborhood of $7. The girls protest most against the 
long day, and the effects of this and the nervous strain of 
their work are decidedly noticeable. It appears in heavy 
eyes with deep, dark rings, in wrinkled skin, and old young 
faces. The high rate of speed that must be maintained 
through so many successive hours is undermining the health 
of thousands of girls in this industry. 

Another grievance is overtime in the busy season. The 
girls are required to work until half-past seven or eight 
o'clock two or three nights a week. They usually stay at 

61 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

their machines through the supper hour and send boys 
out to bring them a bite to eat. This is done to save time 
in the hope of getting through a little earlier. They seem 
to resent this overtime requirement quite as much as the 
inevitable slack seasons, which amount to about twelve 
weeks in the year. 

The employees ordinarily have to pay for goods dam- 
aged in the making, and one rather interesting method 
was found to prevail in a firm operating several factories. 
Each shop is given into the care of a foreman who hires, 
directs, and manages everything in his particular establish- 
ment and is responsible to the firm for output, pay-roll, 
and quality of goods. He is held responsible for faulty 
work, and employees are made to understand that their 
carelessness causes him financial loss. When any serious 
damage, that cannot be concealed, occurs, the foreman 
arranges with the person responsible, to raffle the garment 
when completed, the supposition being that the money 
resulting will be used for the purchase of cloth to replace 
that which was spoiled. But, as a matter of fact, the 
system proves profitable both to the foreman and to 
the firm, inasmuch as tickets at ten cents each are sold 
up to the retail value of the garment. Employees are 
generous in buying, each one knowing her turn may come 
some day. The tax on the individual is light, and does 
not seem to be regarded as a hardship, while a five-cent 
fine for a half-hour's tardiness in the morning is considered 
an outrage in the places where such a custom still prevails. 

The women who make clothes are at the mercy of cir- 
cumstances they do not understand, and cannot control 
as individuals. Their helplessness should commend them 
particularly to the kindly interest of well-to-do women at 
home whose hands are now freed from the needle because 

62 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

of the girl in the shop. The girls' rather frantic occa- 
sional endeavors to help themselves should not be con- 
demned. They are doing the best they can, and should 
be helped whenever it is possible for outsiders to lend a 
hand. 

The Department Stores. — The stores furnish a vast 
field of employment to women, and one of great attrac- 
tiveness, coupled with serious dangers to many. The work 
requires no skill, and so positions are easily accessible to 
the girl who must work and does not know how to do 
anything in particular, and, perhaps, feels a bit above tak- 
ing her chances in a factory. The life of a " saleslady" 
seems most alluring to many young girls. They see only 
the delight of being more or less dressed up, on exhibi- 
tion in fact, all the time. All this is so much more in- 
viting than guiding a sewing-machine in a dingy loft or 
pasting labels on cans in a miserable basement, that the 
possible opportunities in factory work are rarely con- 
sidered by a certain class. The store offers infinitely 
greater advantages, girls think, and they look down on 
the factory operative, as she in turn looks down on the 
domestic servant. 

We studied, in all, nineteen stores employing nearly 
17,000 women. This list includes a few shops, outside 
of the loop or downtown district, in populous, outlying 
sections. The conditions in these places vary from good 
to very bad. Some stores have considerable prestige 
and pay poor wages, while others have no prestige and 
pay higher wages, In some, there is every reasonable 
provision made for the care of the workers ; there are 
elevators and cloak rooms and rest rooms, and light and 
air and cleanliness ; others provide none of these things 
adequately. 

63 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 



The question of wages is always a difficult one to 
answer. Employers in stores seem to be much more 
sensitive on the subject than factory owners. The latter 
will, on occasion, reveal their pay-rolls, but it would re- 
quire unusual pressure to induce the merchant to do so. 
Then again, experience with thousands of employees leads 
to the belief that shop girls are more likely to quote ficti- 
tious averages than are their factory sisters. The sales- 
woman comes in constant touch with the outside world 
and has learned to be wary, if not actually untruthful. 
The moral effect of certain types of stores must be most 
disastrous to girls, for they are instructed to tell the cus- 
tomer anything to insure a sale : " You will get it this 
afternoon," for example, when in the natural course of 
events the article just purchased will not be delivered till 
the following morning. Then, too, they are frequently told 
to misrepresent values of things offered at a special price. 
So it is not surprising that they tend to get the real and 
imaginary wage confused in their own minds. One has 
to become pretty well acquainted with a large number of 
girls in order to know very much about their incomes. 
Rather intimate acquaintance with this particular occu- 
pation in Chicago for a number of years enables me to 
state unhesitatingly that wages in the stores are unduly 
low. Every establishment can exultingly point to ex- 
amples of women earning anywhere from $15 to $25 or 
more a week, but the overwhelming majority get nearer 
$3 than $30. The system of payment here varies from 
a flat weekly rate to a minimum sum plus a regular com- 
mission on sales, or to a maximum sum plus a small 
commission for special sales or for busy seasons. Several 
stores offer $2.50 a week plus commission. In depart- 
ments like millinery, dress goods, and suits, the commis- 

64 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

sion amounts to considerable in the busy seasons, while 
in other departments, such as notions and small wares, a 
girl cannot earn much at any time. Cash girls and 
wrappers quite generally start on $2.50 and $3 a week, 
while entry clerks are paid about $1 more. 

In 959 cases, exclusive of cash girls, selected from the 
various departments of the nineteen stores, the weekly 
earnings ranged from $2.50 to $24, but only in one in- 
stance does the maximum sum appear and the recipient 
was a woman thirty-one years of age. A few, only twenty- 
eight in all, report from $15 to $20 a week. A slightly 
larger proportion show a weekly income of from $10 to 
$15, while the remaining women hover perilously near to 
$5, Only thirty-three of the entire number paid nothing 
at all for living expenses. The department-store workers 
as a whole are underpaid. They have to make a good 
appearance or they cannot get or hold their places. Thus 
the cost of dress is greater than for the poorly paid fac- 
tory girl. It is plain, too, that the girl behind the counter, 
in a store catering to wealthy patrons, is likely to acquire 
tastes out of keeping with her income, It is a hard life 
at best, and yet one greatly sought after by girls who must 
work, but who desire an occupation that seems to carry 
with it some social distinction in the working world. 

Not only are the wages in the stores low, but the hours 
are long. The day in the downtown district begins at 
eight or a half-hour later and ends at six or half-past six. 
Some close a half-hour earlier during two summer months, 
and have only a half-day on Saturday. The lunch period 
is usually half or three-quarters of an hour. The work- 
ing day for the girl, however, is much longer than these 
hours would indicate, as she murt be in her place from 
ten to fifteen minutes before the time for opening and 
f 65 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

frequently is required to remain to put away stock after 
the store is technically closed. The amount of overtime 
varies with the shop and the department. Some girls 
have to stay until eight or nine o'clock several nights in 
the week, and, in those places making a feature of bar- 
gain sales, some saleswomen are obliged to remain every 
night to get things ready for the following day. In more 
than one store they receive no pay and not even supper 
for this overtime, and they do not have a chance to buy 
food for themselves until the work is completed. 

The girls in stores in the outlying districts work until 
nine or ten at night, even in the dull season. Custom 
keeps the places open when it seems questionable business 
policy. This long day of the saleswoman means almost 
constant standing. The absence of enough seats to con- 
form to the state law is noticeable even in the best stores, 
in some departments, and it is a great cause for complaint. 

Some firms give employees of at least a year's stand- 
ing a week's vacation with pay, but the custom is not at 
all general. Many of the stores make a feature of welfare 
work and in these, of course, the women have greater 
physical comforts. Employees' lunch rooms of one 
kind or another are common ; mutual benefit associations 
are not rare ; and even choral societies are found. 

It must be remembered that the employer is not respon- 
sible for all the hardships of the saleswoman's life. The 
idle shopper contributes her quota. Women with time 
hanging heavy on their hands often haunt the shops 
with no idea of purchasing, and weary the clerks by use- 
less questions. This is especially true in stores where 
politeness to all is an iron-clad rule. In the lower grade 
of shop where courtesy is not a requirement, the clerk 
suffers less from the annoyance of the shop tramp. A 

66 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

few well-chosen epithets aimed at the tormentor will 
usually leave the girl behind the counter free to pat her 
mounds of hair and otherwise arrange her toilet, — or to 
serve legitimate purchasers. The nervous strain of sell- 
ing goods in crowded city stores is serious under the best 
conditions, but when purposeless shoppers persist in mak- 
ing unreasonable demands, the position of the saleswoman 
is no enviable one. The girl in the factory speeding at 
her machine to the limit of her endurance has no other 
individual to consider, but the girl who sells the article 
must ordinarily work as swiftly as possible and, at the same 
time, be polite to a number of more or less unreasonable 
women. Perhaps the girls resent most of all the one who 
in a patronizing way asks if they are tired, or how much 
wages they get. This does not mean that they do not 
appreciate a genuine interest in their welfare. 

The saleswoman is ever before the shopping public, 
condemned, commiserated, sometimes praised, but always 
wearing her life out in the midst of the crowd, while 
away from the gaze of men are other groups of girls en- 
during hardships peculiarly their own. One of these 
groups for which we ask consideration is the one in which 
may be classed those engaged in working with electrical 
appliances and somewhat similar products. 

The Metal Workers. — One great electrical establish- 
ment will serve to illustrate difficulties that seem to 
inhere in the metal-working trades. The general work- 
ing conditions in this factory are good. There is an honest 
effort to keep the place clean, to ventilate it, to guard the 
machinery, and to make the girls satisfied with their sur- 
roundings. So far as it was possible to observe, it seemed 
that the foremen and forewomen were well chosen, con- 
siderate, and well liked. The girls took occasion to 

6 7 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

speak of their appreciation of their employers, often speak- 
ing enthusiastically. But there are many things not con- 
ducive to the health of the workers, most of which could 
probably be avoided. The buildings are filled with so 
many kinds of machinery that the whole structure throbs 
constantly. The braiding machine department, where the 
silk covering is woven around the electrical cord, is 
particularly noisy and the vibration almost unbearable. 
The effect upon those who spend nine hours a day in 
such surroundings must of necessity be bad. Even 
when one has become accustomed to the noise, and 
there is no apparent result at the time, there must in- 
evitably be a breakdown when the nerves of a frail 
girl will rebel against this particular strain. One 
foreman said that these machines are among the noisiest 
made, but that there is no way to remedy the diffi- 
culty. It would seem, however, in this age, when 
nothing is impossible to the inventor, that the worst might 
at least be mitigated. Surely it would not be so hard to 
make a small improvement for the safety and the health 
of the employees as to construct a machine which will do 
the work of this one. 

The department which manufactures a certain type of 
electrical lamp carries with it injurious conditions. Most 
of the work is done by hand, but there is one part of the 
operation which requires the use of a gas machine in a 
dark room. This emits an intense blue flame in which 
two pieces of glass are held until they melt, when a mold 
is brought down, welding them together. The work is ex- 
tremely trying to the eyes, and many of the girls wear 
glasses. There are ventilating windows opening into the 
outer room, and a skylight is ordinarily open, but always 
screened to keep out the light. An odor of gas seems to 

68 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

pervade the room all the time. The workers in this de- 
partment receive the highest wages of any women in the 
factory. One girl was found who makes from $19 to $33 
a week, but she said she felt sick all the time. And who 
can wonder? Society demands all kinds of conveniences 
for lighting and communication, but apparently has no 
thought of the human wreckage too often involved in the 
processes connected with supplying these. 
\JIn another industry in the group under consideration, 
certain firms admit that they have to employ what they call 
low-type Lithuanians, because they alone can stand the wear 
and tear. They say the American girl could not endure 
the labor two days, but the Lithuanian women work in 
the factory all day and often take in washing in the even- 
ing in addition to keeping boarders. One place where such 
women work was filthy beyond belief, the heat sickening, 
and the noise deafening. There were no dressing rooms, 
only three little partially screened stalls with a few 
pegs on which to hang clothes. One noon, three girls 
were found lying on the floor of each stall resting, while 
the others had to wait because there was no space for them. 
Still another factory carrying on processes difficult for 
women presents a different character. Here there is ample 
light, and air, and space, with excellent dressing rooms. A 
room is provided where the girls may eat the lunch they 
bring from home, tea and coffee being served free. A visit- 
ing woman physician is engaged by the firm to go through 
the factory and examine the girls personally to ascertain 
their physical condition. A social club of girls in charge of 
this woman physician meets for dancing and general good 
times. At Christmas, each employee receives a bonus of 
10 per cent of her earnings for the entire year. As no one 
earns less than $6 a week and some earn as high as $12 and 

69 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

$14, the amount so distributed is large. The working day is 
nine and one-half hours with no overtime. There is a Sat- 
urday half-holiday in the summer, and vacation is allowed 
to those who wish it, but it is not paid for by the employer. 
The girls on the whole are well treated and comfortable. 

Thus do the burdened days go on in hundreds of fac- 
tories and stores throughout the city, unmindful as the 
machinery that girls are daily being rendered unfit for the 
duties of wifehood and motherhood by the industrial pro- 
cesses of which they are such a vital part. Thoughtful 
people, of course, are not unmindful of this, and in various 
movements are trying to offset the disastrous influence of 
toil under unfavorable conditions. 

While it is the purpose here to reserve for a special 
chapter a discussion of conspicuous movements in behalf 
of wage-earning women, something of the scope of the 
larger efforts in Chicago may be learned from the following 
statement in regard to certain activities : 

Settlements. — There are twenty settlements 1 and in- 
stitutional churches in Chicago which undertake better- 
ment work for young wage-earning women. Fifteen of 
these have a total number of seventy clubs, with a mem- 
bership of over 2000. Nineteen of the settlements and 
churches conduct classes, and only one of these keeps no 
record of the number and membership of its classes ; the 
total number of classes for the other eighteen settlements 
and churches is 131, with a membership of 1717 for 92 
classes ; the membership of the other 39 classes was not 
given. All but four of the settlements and churches send 

1 Difficulties frequently arise in connection with compiling such fig- 
ures. Some institutions, usually included under the head of " settle- 
ments," refused to be so.considered, claiming that they were "missions, " 
or " schools," and so they were omitted from the list. However, the fig- 
ures are presented as approximately correct. 

70 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 



girls to summer vacation homes or camps or arrange for 
some outing for their members. 

Trade Unions. — Twenty-seven unions in Chicago ad- 
mit women to membership. Twenty- two of these have a 
membership of 7470. 

Homes for Working Women. — Sixteen of these special 
boarding places exist and accommodate over 1200 at 
rates varying between $2.75 and $5. 

Welfare Work. — Thirty establishments were found in 
which the employers were conducting various kinds of 
betterment work. 

Clubs. — The Association of Working Girls* Clubs, so 
active in the East, has no branch here, but many local 
clubs maintain lunch rooms and classes and are worthy of 
commendation. 

These opportunities seem pitiably small when compared 
with the tens of thousands who must be without the pale. 

Glimpses of the life and possible needs of 1914 women 
in six industries in Chicago are given in the following 
statistics, which are presented in connection with a study 
of 1476 cases in New York, as some interesting compari- 
sons may be made : 







New 
York 


Chicago 






1476 Cases 


19 14 Cases 


Nationality 


Americans 


735 


1295 




Jews 


373 


179 




Germans 


81 


138 




British 


93 


Il8 




Italians 


148 


* 




Poles 


* 


60 




Scandinavians 


* 


41 




Others 


40 


8l 




Not given 


6 


2 


* The number being small has been included in " Others." 




7* 







WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 







New 
York 


Chicago 






1476 Cases 


1914 Cases 


Age 


Under 25 years of age 


Il6l 


1482 




Not given 


20 


141 


Wages 


Earning less than $7 per 








week 


66l 


753 




Not given 


IO 


55 


Living ar- 


Living at home 


I304 


1618 


rangements 


Number of those living at 
home who contribute to 








family support 


1246 


1543 


Conjugal 


Single 


1337 


1730 


condition 


Married 


66 


74 




Widowed 


57 


67 




Divorced, deserted, or sepa- 








rated 


5 


22 




Not given 


n 


21 


Opportunities 


Pursuing study of some sort 


479 


281 


for study 


Using libraries 


396 


324 


Favorite 


Theater 


356 


356 


amusement 1 


Dancing 

Outdoor amusements and 


185 


290 




athletics 


92 


220 




Music 


82 


200 




Sewing and reading 


121 


247 




Miscellaneous amusements 


217 


169 




No preference expressed 


466 


500 


Church 


Protestant 


327 


615 


affiliation 


Catholic 


659 


641 




Jewish 


86 


96 




Attending church but speci- 








fying no denomination 


48 


405 




Not given 


356 


157 



1 The discrepancy between the total number of amusements and the 
number of women interviewed is accounted for by the fact that in New 
York 43 persons and in Chicago 68 expressed two preferences. 

72 



THE CHICAGO WORKER 

As has been stated before, a great deal is being done 
now for the wage-earning women of Chicago by various 
groups, and types of organizations. Lunch and social 
clubs are numerous in the center of the city and classes 
are held in various places. Kind employers, interested 
individuals, more or less militant unions, and the state 
itself, are taking a hand in the movement for the improve- 
ment of conditions, but here as elsewhere much still 
remains to be accomplished. 



73 



CHAPTER V 

Women in New Jersey Towns 

New Jersey is interesting to the student of the wage- 
earning class, both on account of its dominant industrial 
interests, and its proximity to two of the country's great 
manufacturing centers, which in turn tend to lure, by their 
supposedly greater attractiveness, ambitious workers from 
this state. The nearness of the largest cities to New 
York on the one hand, and Philadelphia on the other, 
may account for some of the unrest evident among many 
employees, and also for the lack of betterment under- 
takings. That is, these cities tend to become merely 
suburban to the greater ones, and are thus victims of that 
divided interest which is inevitable where business and 
residence are widely separated. 

Many working women look with longing eyes to the 
skyscrapers of Manhattan as the goal of their industrial 
ambition, and clerks and stenographers by the hundreds 
rush over the ferries morning and night, and glory in the 
whirl that draws them into the nation's greatest business 
center. But the unskilled factory girl ordinarily must 
stay at home, and seek employment near at hand. Thus 
the working women of the state under consideration may 
be divided into two classes, those who toil within and those 
who toil without. 

It is with the former class that this study deals. But 
the population is so largely a manufacturing one that a 
story of the wage-earners is virtually a story of the people 

74 



WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY TOWNS 

of the state. Out of a total of upwards of two millions, 
we find over three-quarters of a million working daily for 
wages, and of these nearly 150,000 are women sixteen 
years of age and over. These women are found in 
most of the industries represented, but they appear 
in greatest numbers in the making of food and 
cigars, clothing, textiles, and paper goods, and in the 
potteries. 

It is the purpose here to limit the account of women 
wage-earners to the silk-mills and the potteries because 
both of these interests are large. Silk is the most impor- 
tant of the textile industries, and according to censuses 
taken in 1900 and 1905, New Jersey ranked first in the 
whole country in the value of her silk products. There 
are approximately 60,000 people working in silk-mills in 
the United States, and nearly half of these are women, of 
whom New Jersey contributes more than a third. Thus 
the state presents a promising field for the study of 
women who help to make silk products. 

The case of the potteries is similar. New Jersey ranks 
second in this industry, Ohio ranking first with its scores 
of establishments, a number of which produce ware of 
great artistic value. In the former state, the output is 
largely the more usual commercial articles without great 
esthetic merit. Just because this is so, the condition of 
the workers should be of great moment to the average 
consumer, who must use ordinary china and other house- 
hold crockery. Narrow and selfish interests might lead 
us to be more concerned for the women who make goods 
in constant use in our homes than in those things remote 
from our daily lives. If every consumer would insist that 
the articles in common use in his home should be made 
under wholesome conditions, there would be no more vile, 

75 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

unsanitary shops, no more degrading toil for women, pro 
vided only that the insistence be made effective by com- 
bination. But, as such united endeavor presupposes more 
highly socialized individuals than those constituting the 
majority in most communities, other undertakings must 
be regarded as socially valuable. Where elimination of 
industrial ills is not immediately possible, their ameliora- 
tion must be insisted upon. 

In proceeding first to a consideration of the workers 
engaged in making various kinds of silk goods, it may be 
well to outline the types of work which utilize women. 
They are chiefly spinning, winding, warping, and weaving, 
with the allied processes. 

Dyeing is usually done by men, while spinning, which 
calls for no special skill, and is poorly paid, is largely 
turned over to children and very young girls. The 
same is true of "lacing/' a process necessary in wind- 
ing " hard " or natural silk for the dyer. Children 
divide the skeins into four or five strands and lace a 
string in and out and back again to prevent snarling. 
They work swiftly, but rarely earn more than $3.50 a 
week. Winding, like other textile winding processes, 
consists in transferring, by machinery, the spun silk to 
spools for the shuttle. The worker's task is one of 
guidance and careful watching, in addition to keeping the 
frame supplied with fresh spools. One girl frequently 
watches fifty or more separate threads at a time, joining 
broken ones and otherwise adjusting them. 

Warping, or preparing the thread in the loom for 
weaving, also requires close attention from the operator, in 
order that imperfections in the finished product may be 
avoided. 

The foregoing processes differ somewhat with dyed 

76 



WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY TOWNS 

and undyed silks. The latter is not so pleasant to work 
with as the former on account of a disagreeable odor 
resulting from the process of removing a certain sizing 
by plunging the silk in a hot chemical solution and sub- 
sequently drying it by artificial heat. Owing to this 
unpleasantness, work with undyed silk does not, as a rule, 
attract the better class of workers. It is noticeable 
everywhere that objectionable features, such as bad odors 
or filth in an industry, tend to drive out the more intelli- 
gent women, who seek pleasanter surroundings, even 
though less remunerative. 

Most of the work in silk-mills, however, is not objec- 
tionable in itself, although it may easily become so if 
carried on in foul air and poorly kept rooms. Fresh air 
and cleanliness go far towards making any textile process 
less of a hardship to the women who labor in the in- 
dustry. The women themselves are usually the last to 
realize the disastrous effects of unsanitary workshops, and 
the thoughtful employer frequently meets opposition from 
the very women whom he desires to help. But more 
often than not, the manufacturer is much more concerned 
about the output of the mills than the physical and 
moral well-being of his employees. 

Another process is "picking," which pays uniformly 
only about $6 a week, although it requires close appli- 
cation and great care. The woven fabric is passed 
over to girls who are supplied with sharp pincers 
and clippers, and they carefully examine every piece," 
clipping off stray threads, ends, or knots wherever they 
appear. In order to do the work thoroughly, many use 
magnifying glasses, and find it extremely trying to the 
nerves, as it requires the closest attention. All the pro- 
cesses in fact call for a degree of watchfulness which 

77 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

means considerable strain. The girls who weave gor- 
geous plaid silks have an unusual number of bobbins 
to follow and complain of great nervousness. They start 
and tremble at the slightest unusual sound ; and their 
faces twitch as the threads shoot in and out to form the 
bright designs. The lover of gay plaids rarely knows 
that young life has lost its vigor and young faces have 
become lined in their making. 

It is young life in the silk-mills in our New Jersey 
towns, for the average age in many factories is not more 
than twenty. The girls are, in the main, alert and keen 
when they enter the mills, and those in the simpler forms 
of the industry retain their buoyancy in spite of poor 
working conditions and low wages. 

The wages, except for the weavers, are low. Even in- 
cluding the most highly paid, the average is well below $7 
a week when employment is fairly regular, as may be seen 
from the following statement based on a canvass of 300 
workers, representing seven distinct processes. 

Average 
Form of Occupation Weekly Wage 

Spinning $ 5.00 

Winding 7.50 

Warping 6.00 

Picking 6.00 

Weaving 10.00 

Lacing 3.50 

Cutting 3.50 

The mere statement should be sufficient to convince 
any thinking person that wages are too low to permit a 
girl to be self-supporting and self-respecting. These 
workers are not " pin money " girls, but young women 
who must take care of themselves, and frequently help to 

78 



WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY TOWNS 

bear family burdens as well. It would seem that every 
reasonable effort should be made to place these girls on a 
higher economic plane. If technical training would en- 
able the girl to be more valuable to her employer, and 
enable her to earn higher wages, then, undoubtedly, it 
should be furnished, either in connection with the public 
schools or in private classes. Employers are prone to 
say that young girls are not worth the insignificant sums 
they do earn, owing to their lack of skill and consequent 
wastefulness. If this be true, immediate steps should be 
taken to remedy the difficulty. If heedless young crea- 
tures are ruining their lives because they have not been 
taught properly, the burden of wrong must fall upon society. 

But the silk-mill operatives are not more in need of 
assistance in this particular than those in the other group 
with which we are concerned in the state. 

The potteries contribute their quota of low- skilled and 
underpaid workers, but the situation here is somewhat 
different. The women naturally fall into two classes, — 
the decorators or privileged group, and the other workers. 
The former seem to have a good deal of freedom in their 
hours, and are very intelligent young women. Their 
work consists in the printing of papers with lead colors to 
transfer to china, called decalcomania work, rubbing, 
printing, and, finally, the filling in and gilding of the ware. 
The decalcomaning and gilding yield the highest wage, 
and furnish the most skilled work for women in the in- 
dustry. Other types of work for women are the pro- 
cesses known as 

(i) Dipping, which consists in wetting the biscuit 
ware, so called after the first firing, in the glaze. The 
girls wear rubber gloves to protect their hands from the 
spattering which is liable to occur, and as there is some 

79 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

lead in the glaze it might be dangerous if they did not 
exercise care. 

(2) Cleaning, that is, brushing and shaking off the dust 
which becomes free in the firing, and accumulates in the 
trays used for carrying the appliances. The girls tip the 
contents of the trays on tables in front of them, and clean 
each individual piece ready for sorting. An unusual 
amount of dust is raised in the cleaning process, and 
many wear caps, and in other ways try to protect them- 
selves. As the glaze contains lead, and the china more 
flint than porcelain, the dust which arises would be in- 
jurious if precautions were not taken. In the best places, 
exhaust pipes are attached to the table at which the girls 
stand, and there is an outlet in front of each girl with a 
draft sufficiently strong to carry off a large part of the 
waste particles. 

In one establishment where the ware was particularly 
rough, the women found it necessary to use sandpaper 
before the brush. This was very hard on the hands. 
Most of them had their knuckles bound in rags, and, even 
then, they were bleeding. One big brush which was at- 
tached to a machine for cleaning large pieces was placed 
near a window. Otherwise there was no means of col- 
lecting or discharging the excessive dust, and this is the 
condition in too many instances. 

(3) Dressing, which consists in knocking off and 
smoothing imperfections in the china made by the im- 
print of the support upon which the dish rests when in 
the kiln. The workers usually sit on low boxes surrounded 
by piles of dishes within easy reach. They can work 
rapidly this way, but their positions are often very un- 
comfortable. 

(4) Sorting, or selecting the perfect pieces and arrang- 

80 



WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY TOWNS 

ing them according to shape and size for packing. It will 
be seen that such tasks as have been outlined are physi- 
cally hard rather than nerve- wearing. 

It is true that certain unhealthful conditions prevail in 
most potteries, and employers recognize their existence 
and attempt to excuse them on the ground of " conditions 
peculiar to the industry." There will be dust, unless 
proper devices for carrying it off are installed, and it is 
said that even such devices are not entirely satisfac- 
tory. In addition to this, some workers are constantly 
subjected to changes in temperature, while others stand 
in wet clay throughout the day. Occasionally girls wear 
overshoes, but those are uncomfortable at best. The same 
conditions prevail in Ohio and Pennsylvania ; and in the 
establishment where the five-hundred-dollar vase of rare 
beauty is made there is liable to be a room, cold, damp, 
and dust-laden, where slatternly girls are molding 
clay and fattening the germs of disease. This is only the 
old tale. The finished product gives no hint of the 
horrors often following in the wake of the processes con- 
tributing to its beauty. 

The wages of the pottery women are low, only an in- 
ferior grade of skill being required for most of the work. 
The minimum and maximum earnings for the different 
processes are presented here, and from these it will be 
evident that the average wage in all does not much exceed 
$6 a week when there is no slack season. 



Dipping 


yields from 


$4.50 to $ 6.00 


Cleaning or brushing 


yields from 


4.00 to 7.00 


Dressing 


yields from 


3.00 to 7.00 


Printing and transferring 


yields from 


7.00 to 12.00 


Sorting or selecting 


yields' from 


4.50 to 6.00 


Gilding 

G 


yields from 
81 


6.00 to 12.00 






WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

Nature was most generous in giving New Jersey clay and 
girls for the potteries. It remains for man in return to 
render more favorable the conditions under which the 
latter must work with the former. It may be said that 
women are decreasing in this trade except as decorators. 
Man's greater strength is found more desirable. 

Altogether the New Jersey investigation covered four 
cities and included detailed information concerning 824 
individual workers, of whom 722 were unmarried. Of 
this number 460 were Americans, 141 British, 18 Jewish, 
66 Italian, 64 German, and the remaining 75 came from 
seven different countries, as widely remote as Greece and 
Sweden. Seventy-eight per cent of these women were 
under twenty-five years of age and only 9 per cent over 
thirty-five. Forty-seven per cent earned less than $7 a 
week, when work was constant, while 87 per cent lived 
at home. This does not mean that all these women were 
merely working for "pin money." The great majority of 
them helped to maintain the family. It was found that 
of the 714 living at home, 657, or 92 per cent, contributed 
to family support; 538 turned all their wages into the 
general fund; and only 22 of the entire number paid 
nothing for board at home, and apparently had all they 
earned to spend on themselves. 

Fewer than half of these women worked in factories 
that could be characterized as good, while fully a third 
worked day by day in extremely bad places. This has 
reference to physical rather than to moral conditions, al- 
though unfavorable physical conditions are liable to bring 
about unfortunate developments in the realm of morality. 

These New Jersey workers manifested considerable in- 
terest in the question of amusements, and when asked to 
state their favorite form, it developed that dancing took 

82 



WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY TOWNS 

first place, with theater-going a close second. But their 
interest in the great outdoors was slight, notwithstanding 
the fact that, living as they do in cities of moderate size, 
they could easily reach the open country. It is true that 
their hours of work are long, from seven to six as a rule, 
and there is little daylight left in which to enjoy outdoor 
life. The evening, therefore, becomes the time for recrea- 
tion, and evening pastimes must be accepted. So dancing 
and theater-going occupy a large place in their lives. 

Naturally girls earning in the neighborhood of ^7 
a week have little to spend on pleasures, so they 
must take those which are cheapest, regardless of their 
worth. The younger girls maintained that men friends 
took them out at night, and that they were not obliged to 
spend their own money. This is undoubtedly true, but 
the financial ability of the men friends to take them to 
high-class entertainments may well be questioned. 

These girls, like all others, crave pleasure, and they 
should have it. Good, clean, wholesome fun is better for 
them after their monotonous toil than instruction in 
academic subjects can ever be. The wife of one employer 
was found taking a very vital interest in the young women 
and skilfully devising wholesome pleasures for them. Her 
work seemed to be appreciated. 

The women workers of this state need first of all better 
working conditions, and employers should be compelled 
to provide these. If there are special hardships inherent 
in the industry, as in pottery, every known device for the 
protection of the girl should be installed. Twenty years 
ago certain diseases were so prevalent in this industry 
that they were made the subject of a special report to the 
State Board of Health. Improvements have been made 
since then, but even now rheumatism and diseases of the 

83 






WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

respiratory organs are all too prevalent. Girls are too 
valuable to society to be sacrificed for china. 

In the second place, the women need higher wages to 
enable them to get a reasonable degree of comfort out of 
life. Many lack efficiency, it is true, but they should be 
given an opportunity to become more efficient in their 
special tasks. They need also a chance to gratify their 
desire for social intercourse. They must be helped in 
this by philanthropically disposed people. 

Some employers are honestly endeavoring to improve 
conditions where they can. Considerable betterment work 
is conducted, and some of it seems to lack the objection- 
able paternalistic features so often accompanying under- 
takings of this kind. At least three of the silk-mills have 
employees' benefit societies designed to furnish funds to 
cover periods of sickness, while one has in addition to this 
a death benefit. The dues in all are low. For instance, 
ten cents a month will give the girl $2.35 a week during 
illness, while thirty cents will yield a benefit of $7. One 
silk factory is on a profit-sharing basis. 

Several potteries maintain lunch rooms for their workers, 
and in one there is also a sick benefit and burial fund as- 
sociation, organized and maintained by the employees. A 
member to be entitled to benefits must show that the dis- 
ability from which she suffers was not brought on by her 
own misconduct. 

These undertakings, however, affect only a few. The 
great mass of workers still remains untouched by any 
special beneficent influence. The opportunity is a rare 
one for any group wise enough to meet it in a spirit of 
fairness, and yet with a determination to make working 
life more desirable and more profitable in every way for 
thousands of young women. 

84 



CHAPTER VI 
Women Toilers in the Middle West 

It is the purpose here to show something of the condi- 
tions under which women work in several small cities in 
Iowa and Michigan, as these states were among those 
chosen to represent the section so long dominantly agri- 
cultural, but now developing important manufacturing in- 
terests. The census for 1900 gives Iowa 100,000 women 
in gainful occupations, and Michigan but 25,000 more. 
Eliminating women in the professions and in domestic 
service, we have left for industrial pursuits only about half 
of the total in both cases, not a great number, it is true, 
but relatively very important. It must be remembered that 
the entire population of the two states is less than the to- 
tal number of women workers in the whole country. 

The states with new industrial interests should profit 
by the experiences of older sections, and avoid certain 
unfortunate conditions that have proved disastrous to the 
workers and to society as a whole. Desirable as such 
enlightened action seems to be, it does not appear to 
make a very strong appeal to those who are engaged in 
establishing industrial undertakings. They are more in- 
tent upon building up business than upon the ethics under- 
lying its development. This has been the history of indus- 
trial growth. Each state in turn has to correct its own 
maladjustments, as they become conspicuous, when a little 
foresight might have prevented them altogether. The two 
states under discussion in this chapter are no exception to 
this general rule, as will be seen from the story presented. 

85 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

In Iowa, we studied thirty establishments in three cities, 
employing in the neighborhood of 2500 women, and some 
description of the way these women work making clothes 
and buttons and beer will serve to show that industrial 
hardships are found in the new as well as in the older 
and more crowded cities. 

Passing first to the clothing trade, we find all types of 
garment factories, from the one paying $2 a week to be- 
ginners and exacting fines for tardiness, to the well-ordered 
place where the young girl may earn about $4 to start 
with on the piece-work system. Women perform the 
same tasks that they do elsewhere in the same trade, the 
only point of interest here being the conditions under which 
they perform these somewhat monotonous tasks. 

On the whole, the factories seem brighter and better 
ventilated than those in the great cities. As land is 
cheaper in the smaller towns, there is not the ever present 
economic necessity for crowding buildings so close as to 
exclude light and air from one another. Passenger ele- 
vators, however, are rarely found, and girls are obliged to 
walk up four and even five flights of stairs to their work. 
They often complain of this, particularly as they are obliged 
to go out at noon, since lunch rooms are rarely provided 
by employers. In the smaller cities, it is quite natural 
for employees to go home to lunch, as they do not ordi- 
narily live far from their work. Separate toilets are usually 
provided for the sexes, but dressing rooms are found only 
occasionally. The absence of dressing rooms does not 
appear to work much hardship from the girls' point of view, 
although the custom of changing street clothes for work 
dress is general. Even in places where there are dressing 
rooms the girls prefer to hang their clothes on hooks near 
their machines, and change them in the factory, regardless 

86 



WOMEN TOILERS IN THE WEST 

of onlookers of both sexes. They do this, probably not so 
much because they are immodest, as because they are in- 
different ; and where one or two hundred women are em- 
ployed, it seems more convenient to them for each to 
keep her clothes apart from the rest, and near to herself. 
Pleasant retiring rooms, with individual lockers, would 
probably overcome the prejudice in favor of near-by hooks, 
and have a general refining influence. 
~ The usual working day is nine hours, but there is con- 
siderable freedom allowed employees in regard to time 
in most factories, on account of the prevalence of the piece 
system of payment. The girl is paid for the amount of 
work she turns out. While the privilege of working at 
will is advantageous in not holding the workers to a defi- 
nite number of hours, it has resulted in some rather seri- 
ous local complications which are deplored by those who 
know the situation. The younger and more frivolous girls 
often cease work early in the afternoon to meet men, some- 
times questionable characters, in the parks, and return 
home at the usual closing hour, so that their mothers think 
they have been at work. This leniency on the part of 
employers is undoubtedly accounted for by the fact that 
work is not urgent. A conspicuous grievance of women 
in eastern cities is that no such leniency is permitted, 
where, even when there is no work for the girl to do, she is 
often obliged to spend her time in the factory without remu- 
neration, in case her services should be required. The free- 
dom in regard to afternoon hours is, however, not extended 
to the morning, and several firms systematically dock em- 
ployees a half-day's pay when they arrive later than half- 
past seven. These factories begin work at seven. 

Western women seem to be paid somewhat better than 
their New York sisters, and they do not work under so 

8 7 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

severe pressure. The deadening effects of high speed are 
not seen, and on the whole the girls look sturdy. 

The next industry that attracts attention is button mak- 
ing, and in one town that is an important center the great 
majority of the working women are engaged in this in- 
dustry. The factories are naturally in river towns, as the 
buttons are made from river shells. Many of the buildings 
are old, and provide only the poorest accommodations for 
the employees. 

The work of the women consists in grinding buttons, 
sharpening drills, running the hand-machines for stamping 
patterns on buttons, and the automatic machines for cen- 
tering and drilling and sorting. The grinders are usually 
young girls of fourteen or fifteen, and the grinding process 
consists in arranging buttons on a moving belt to be 
smoothed by machinery. The shell dust is thick at these 
machines and is most injurious to the respiratory organs. 

The sorters sit at window tables and sort buttons. 
This, as well as other forms of work, is paid by the piece. 
Sorting is much more desirable than grinding, and, be- 
cause of the difference, the sorters feel superior to those 
in the machine rooms, and draw a rather rigid social line. 

The automatic machines for centering and drilling are 
provided with tubes through which the dust is carried to 
the factory chimney, but the grinding-machines have no 
such appliances, and the young women suffer injury. A 
little ingenuity could certainly overcome this difficulty. 

The highest wages paid are satisfactory enough, but 
the lowest are inadequate. Some of the sorters earn from 
$12 to $14 a week, while other workers of experience 
make only $6, and the unskilled girl fares much worse. 
The great majority have homes in the city, but girls from 
the country round about are frequently attracted by reports 

88 



WOMEN TOILERS IN THE WEST 

of the high wages, and come in to seek employment. They 
are often grievously disappointed when they find that they 
cannot earn over $3 or $4 at first. The result is that they 
either go home, or grow discouraged, and drift around 
looking for higher wages, and finally go into domestic ser- 
vice, as that provides at least a home over and above the 
wage. 

The button workers are a considerable problem in the 
town, but the people, chiefly through religious organiza- 
tions, are trying to meet their needs. 

Women are entering the breweries in several western 
states, and they seem to be employed almost entirely as 
inspectors, bottle washers, labelers, and wrappers. In a 
river town in Iowa, we found about sixty working in one 
establishment, and the firm had been employing women 
for seven years. 

The utilizing of women in this particular occupation 
seems to meet with severe condemnation in some quarters. 
It is feared that they will be unduly demoralized by famil- 
iarity with drink and inevitable contact with a low type of 
men. The industry, therefore, assumes a local importance 
out of proportion to its numerical rank. A few hundred 
women at most are found, but the tendency is toward an 
increase. Curiously enough, a certain closing law 1 re- 
sulted in an increased number of women in the breweries, 
owing to the greater consumption of bottled beer, and 
the consequent need of more women to get bottles ready 
for the market. One brewery, employing thirty-eight 
women in 1906, had sixty during the summer of 1907. 

Here the women wear a blue uniform and look fairly 
neat. They work all day and nearly every evening in 
summer. Overtime is required on penalty of losing one's 

1 1907. 

89 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

position. The regular day's work is from seven in the 
morning until noon, and from one until five. If the 
employees are needed until eight in the evening, they 
work until that hour without supper ; if they are to work 
until ten, they stop from five to six. These long days 
carry with them no chance for vacation in the summer, as 
that is the busy season, but they are laid off in squads in 
the winter, for two weeks or a month each. This simply 
means a period of unemployment which is not welcomed. 
The women who inspect the beer and wash bottles stand 
all day. The work of inspecting is said to be injurious 
to the eyes, since the inspector has to use artificial light, 
owing to the location of inspecting rooms, and this light 
is often insufficient. Bottle washing offers steady em- 
ployment, and those who engage in it can always count 
on work ; but not so with the labelers. The men receive 
double time payment for overtime work because they 
belong to the union, while the girls, who are unorganized, 
and must remain so according to a company edict, get 
only the regular rate, which is 6f, 8^, n, or 12 cents an 
hour according to the sort of work. The highest wage 
received by the women is $1. 10 a day, except in the case 
of forewomen, who receive more. The usual wage, how- 
ever, falls below this. Labelers receive 75 cents, and 
bottle washers $1 a. day. In the face of public dis- 
approval of brewery work for girls, many mothers say 
that they consider it more desirable for their daughters 
than the overall factories with their laxity in regard to 
afternoon hours. The mother's interest in the daughter's 
work is noticeable in the towns in the Middle West, and 
it is a most encouraging feature, as many of the girls live 
at home, and so are influenced by the parents' attitude. 
The brewery girls are mainly from German families who 

90 



WOMEN TOILERS IN THE WEST 

are not concerned with the question of the demoraliz- 
ing effect of contact with beer and beer drinkers in the 
brewing establishments. 

In Michigan, thread and clothing occupied our atten- 
tion, and in the towns selected there were altogether 
only about 2000 women in the two industries. It was 
noticeable that the demand for workers exceeded the 
local supply and employers advertised freely throughout 
the state for the needed help. Yet in spite of special 
inducements, it is difficult to secure an adequate number 
of workers. This scarcity of labor may account for the 
independence observed in many of the women. Yet this 
independence does not appear to result in perceptibly 
higher wages, save in a few instances. 

The thread 1 workers were studied in so-called model 
factories, and the companies' claim to superiority in cer- 
tain directions seems warranted. Working conditions are 
apparently as good as they can be, and there is a sincere 
effort to further the comfort and welfare of the workers. 
All the mills are lined with windows so that there is 
abundance of light; the aisles are broad and un- 
obstructed; and, except in rooms where machinery re- 
quires great quantities of oil, everything is clean. The 
machines are well protected, and, as they are tended by 
machinists, the girls have no responsibility in regard to 
them. Bobbin boys carry the spools back and forth 
and do all the heavy work. 

The only unfortunate conditions observed in the work- 
rooms were the long hours and the noise, which is 
deafening in the weaving room. There one feels the jar 
of the machines to a greater extent than in other depart- 
ments. Many of the girls say that they become accus- 

1 Silk thread and silk fabrics. 

9 1 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

tomed to the noise in about two weeks, and it has no 
further effect on them, while others insist that it gradually 
undermines the nervous system and dulls the sense of 
hearing. There is no doubt that the strain of the long 
hours tends to increase the effect of the noise. 

If the working day were shorter, and if the employees 
were not required to expend their energy up to the point of 
exhaustion, they would have more strength to withstand 
the nerve-racking noise. The whistles blow at a quarter 
past six in the morning, and the mills shut down in the 
evening at six. There is an hour allowed at noon, mak- 
ing the work day ten hours and forty-five minutes long, 
without overtime, which is occasionally required. The 
rules in regard to tardiness are strict. An employee who 
is late when her department is busy is likely to be locked 
out for half a day, and the time-workers are docked half 
an hour for every five minutes' tardiness. The mills close 
on Saturday afternoons throughout the year. 

The spoolers may sit at their work, but all the other 
operators stand. When the silk " runs well," that is, 
when they are working on good silk, they can set the 
machines and sit down while a reel is being wound or a 
spool covered, but when the silk is poor they are on 
their feet constantly, untangling it, and tying it where it 
breaks. 

It is much more difficult to work with a poor quality 
of silk than with good, and employees have to take their 
chances on whatever kind is given them. If the firm 
has bought a good grade, the labor of the workers is 
comparatively easy, and their wages consequently fairly 
high ; if a poor grade is given to them, they are expected 
to work the same number of hours, although the fatigue 
is much greater and their piece rate is not raised. The 

92 



WOMEN TOILERS IN THE WEST 

girls say that when the silk is particularly bad, they grow 
so nervous that they often have hysterics. One woman 
testified that one day she had worked from eight o'clock 
to a quarter of eleven, and in the two hours and three- 
quarters had made only 4^ cents, and this because of the 
poor quality of silk furnished. 

Some of the women have been working in the mills 
for twenty years. They are loyal to their employers, and 
seem to appreciate their many advantages, but when 
talking about wages they smile bitterly, and say that after 
so long a time they are able to earn at most only $7.50 
or $8 a week. The lowest wage found was $2.50 a week, 
paid in one instance to a girl of seventeen, and again to 
one of fifteen, both living in a corporation boarding-house 
at a cost of $2 a week each; the highest was $11.25, 
earned by a girl of seventeen, who paid the same sum as 
the others for board. Both cases are unusual. The 
majority report earnings between $5.50 and $7.50 a week, 
with fairly regular employment. 

Many workers in these mills come from the surrounding 
farms and villages, and as it is difficult for them to find 
accommodation in town, one of the companies operates two 
boarding-houses for their convenience. One is a new 
building of pressed brick and terra-cotta — the finest res- 
idence in the town ; the other is much older but home- 
like, equipped with the best modern plumbing and health- 
ful and pleasant in every way. Both have beautiful lawns ; 
the older one, especially, is shaded by large old trees and 
shrubs and has a fine flower garden. Each house contains 
two well-furnished parlors, and a small library and reading 
room. The bedrooms are not large, but large enough to 
be comfortable and pretty. Two girls occupy a room. 

The two houses, with an annex, accommodate 200 girls 

93 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

for from $2 to $2.40 a week. The residents have certain 
privileges which they value greatly, such as the free use of 
a well- equipped laundry; but there are also some re- 
strictions which, on the whole, they view quite philo- 
sophically. A rigidly enforced house rule is that all girls 
must be in by half-past nme at night, unless granted a pass 
by the matron. But as there is a great dearth of evening 
amusements, this curtailment of liberty does not seem to 
work any special hardship. Were it not that the churches 
are unusually active, the place would be in a state of social 
starvation. Almost all the mill girls go to church and are 
helpful and enthusiastic in the varied church activities, 
but several said, "This is not enough." They long for 
diversion. 

This mill population presents a picture of the industrial 
life of middle-class Americans in their struggle for self- 
realization. A few Canadians from across the border are 
about the only foreign-born workers. The rest are Ameri- 
cans, of German, Irish, and French descent. The girls, 
as has been said, are mainly from the farms and small towns 
in the central part of the state and many have a high school 
education. They would lend themselves readily to any 
effort to broaden their horizon, and thus present a very 
different problem from that of the New Jersey silk- workers, 
or the Massachusetts thread-mill operatives. But they 
grow restless, even defiant at times, over the ceaseless 
monotony of mechanical operations. These girls could 
work well in some organization of their own, which would 
furnish them instruction and recreation. This, added to 
the interest taken by employers, would counteract the more 
or less deadening influence of a small town, barren of moral 
and intellectual stimulus. It would mean new life for a 
thousand girls. 

94 



WOMEN TOILERS IN THE WEST 

| The makers of various kinds of women's clothing, chiefly 
underwear, were interviewed in a town five or six times 
larger than the one where the silk thread is made. Here 
the working day for all factories is from 6.30 a.m. to 6.00 
p.m., when a Saturday half-holiday is given; when it is 
not, shops close half an hour earlier. It has long been 
the proud boast that this is a " ten cents an hour " town, 
but at least one manufacturer admitted, that, with slack 
seasons and fluctuating piece rates, it has become in reality 
a " five dollars a week " town. As a matter of fact, the 
younger factory girls seldom earn more than $4.50 a week. 

\The demand for workers in the clothing trade is greater 
than the town can supply, in spite of the manufacturers' 
assertion that almost all of the girls live at home and work 
only for spending money. 

v One is led to doubt the statement, however, not only 
because it does not seem plausible, but because there are 
advertisements in the papers in small towns all over the 
state calling for girls to come to the work awaiting them, 
and offering special inducements. There are no company 
boarding-houses, and although it seems as if every house 
in the town announced " furnished rooms " for rent, board- 
ing is becoming a problem since the increased cost of 
living has raised the room rent, from fifty and seventy-five 
cents, to $1 and $2 a week. Many live in furnished 
rooms and do "light housekeeping," or live "out of a 
bag," as one woman expressed it, which means that they 
subsist chiefly on cheap and unnutritious bakery stuff. 
Those who board and room at the same place have always 
paid $2 or $2.50 a week, but the rates are being raised 
to $3> $3 -So, and $4 in most of the larger boarding- 
houses. 

The town itself is attractive. Even the little cheap cot- 

95 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

tages in the Polish quarter are new and neat, with well- 
kept grassy lawns. The general air of beauty and refine- 
ment has had its effect on the girls in the factories. 
Like the silk workers, they are nearly all Americans, born 
in the state in which they work. There are a few Ameri- 
can-born Poles who speak English well, and bear no 
resemblance to the Polish girls working in the clothing 
shops of Chicago. The Polish immigrant women work 
in the bean elevators, and do not go into the factories. 
Here, as elsewhere in the state, one finds many Canadians, 
but of a very different type from their French-speaking 
sisters in the New England mills. They all have a gram- 
mar school education, and many have been through the 
high schools, so that they are on a par with the Americans 
with whom they work. 

The clothing workers were not found in model facto- 
ries ; indeed, sanitary conditions were bad in several in- 
stances. But bad ventilation and bad odors seem to 
make little or no impression on the girls. Their attention 
is riveted on the strain of the work and the tendency to 
cut wage rates. They assert that, while the rates on the 
various processes are not actually reduced, a virtual re- 
duction is brought about by the custom of dividing one 
piece of work between an experienced woman and a 
young girl, the latter being given all the easy "jobs," thus 
making the task harder for the older woman, and her 
wages lower. An example of this is furnished by a woman 
who, before the adoption of this custom, was able to earn 
from $i2to$i4a week, but now finds her highest rate $9. 

It is not unusual to find women performing tasks requir- 
ing great strength, as well as endurance. In one establish- 
ment where all the pressing is done by two women, thirteen- 
pound gas irons are in use, and the women press ten 

96 



WOMEN TOILERS IN THE WEST 

hours a day. One woman was partially paralyzed as a 
result of nervous strain and unduly hard labor; the other, 
buoyant and strong, was helping her husband buy a home. 
The struggling, weary, paralyzed widow looks wonderingly 
at her sister worker's energy, and thinks that she would 
gladly live in a rented house, if only she had some one to 
take care of her. 

The scarcity of female labor in this industry seems to 
give women workers unusual independence. There is 
always a demand for employees. It is said that because 
of this fact the girls know that their demands will be met, 
and they are not at all chary about making them. When 
the long corset was introduced, one girl demanded that 
her piece rate be raised from eight to ten cents per dozen 
for the longer seam. The foreman explained to her that 
while it required more work and more cloth, the garment 
would still be sold at the old price, and would be an 
actual loss to the firm if the cost of labor were increased. 
She replied that she was sorry for the firm, but that her 
rate would have to be raised if she remained. The rate 
was raised, although on this particular line of corsets 
there was no extra profit. Non-union girls in New York 
or Chicago are obliged to go on stitching the longer 
seam at the old rate because there are many others wait- 
ing to take their places. 

The intelligent American women in the Middle West 
could, undoubtedly, equalize wages by a little coopera- 
tion. Employers are reasonable, and seem to take a 
great deal of interest in their employees, but their point 
of view in regard to wages is not that of the girls, nor is it 
always that of the community. 

The average sum earned in the clothing shops is be- 
tween $6 and $7 a week. There is not much slack time 
h 97 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

during the year, and living expenses are low, so the girls are 
better off than city workers in the same industry. 

There is considerable class feeling in the town, and the 
expression " only a factory girl " is frequently heard. 
Some of the girls are sensitive and shrink from the social 
ostracism, while others appear to find it quite diverting 
that their old schoolmates in more favorable circum- 
stances should pass them by as strangers. 

The small industrial communities in states largely 
rural offer certain advantages to the worker in the way 
of decreased cost of living and less crowded quarters, but 
at the same time there is too often a social dreariness 
that offsets the charm of fresh air and grass and trees. 
The girl has not the chance for self-improvement that the 
city employee has. This need could easily be met by 
local societies or the extension of national organizations. 
The homogeneity of many of the industrial groups in the 
Middle West would make the task simple enough. In 
Iowa, 249 out of 452 women interviewed were making use 
of opportunities to study, including the use of libraries. 
In Michigan the proportion was 103 out of 194. This 
is a pleasing indication. Recreational facilities are sadly 
lacking in most of the smaller towns, and young women 
need relaxation and enjoyment to counteract the numb- 
ing effects of high speed and long hours. They should 
have more of the delights of youth which economic in- 
dependence is in a fair way to wrest from them. 

This is the time to direct the course of industrial life in 
sections emerging from agriculturalism. The unfortunate 
developments in older centers should be avoided, for 
girls who work at spindle and loom and stitching-machine 
must be saved to the state. 



98 



CHAPTER VII 

Hop Picking in Oregon 1 

During the last five years, hop picking has furnished a 
considerable field of employment to women throughout 
the early autumn in the Pacific Slope states. Formerly, 
the picking was done largely by the family and neighbors, 
and these, in turn, as the industry developed, were as- 
sisted, or superseded, by Indians and the Chinese. This 
was in the day of comparatively small fields. But a 
change was inevitable when the acres under cultivation 
were multiplied, and miles of trellises indicated the ex- 
tent of the crops to be harvested. Thousands of workers 
are needed where hundreds sufficed several years ago. 

The suddenness with which unattached young women 
appeared in the big fields as pickers thrust upon earnest 
people an entirely new problem, — a problem of sufficient 
local importance to warrant the most careful study of at 
least a typical large field, and several small ones, in the 
section ranking first in output. 
fL)f the hop-raising states, Oregon is the most important^ 
producing in 1907 about 25,000,000 pounds to be com- 
pared with 18,000,000 for California, 10,000,000 for New 
York and 8,000,000 for Washington. Before 1850, almost 
all the hops produced in the United States were raised in 
New England. During the next forty years, New York 
produced more than all the other states combined. Now 
the palm goes to the Pacific coast country, which has to- 
day 40,000 acres under hops. A generation ago it had 

1 This chapter appeared, in slightly different form, in the American 
Journal of Sociology, July, 1909. 

99 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

fewer than 2000. Scarcity of labor, prohibitionist agitation, 
and worn-out soil combined to render hop growing in 
New York unprofitable. The unfertilized soil of Oregon 
will yield twice as many pounds to the acre as the New 
York earth can, aided by much fertilization. 

Owing to the fact that no studies of hop-pickers had 
been made previously to our undertaking, and the im- 
possibility of getting information through ordinary 
channels, it seemed necessary to depart from the usual 
methods of inquiry adopted by investigators, and resort 
to the way traveled occasionally by journalists in their 
quest for a story. But it must be remembered that Paul 
Gohre 1 and Frau Dr. Minna Wettstein-Adelt 2 in Germany 
and Professor Walter Wyckoff 3 in our own country in- 
dorsed the value of the hardships of self-imposed toil, for 
longer or shorter periods, in order to learn more about 
the workers than could otherwise be learned. The length 
of time required to discover the facts sought must depend 
upon the nature of the labor. Where freedom and in- 
timacy prevail, as they do among the hop-pickers, one 
can learn more in a few days than in as many weeks in 
an industry characterized by minute division of labor, and 
a high degree of managerial organization. 

Having in mind the situation that has been suggested, 
1 4 decided to go myself to the Far West and join in the 
life and labor of the pickers. 

l " Three Months in a Workshop," 1895. 

2 "35Monate Fabrik-Arbeiterin," 1897. 

8 "The Workers," 1898. 

4 As evidence of seriousness of purpose and experience in enduring 
toil, the reader is referred to my earlier first-hand studies of working 
women as follows : 

" Two Weeks in Department Stores," American Journal of Sociology t 
May, 1899, and " The Sweatshop in Summer," American Journal of 
Sociology, November, 1903. 

IOO 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

I arrived in Portland a few days before the opening of 
the season, which is about the first of September, and 
began to look for work. I eagerly scanned the advertis- 
ing columns of the daily papers to see if more pickers 
were needed. My quest was soon rewarded, for I found 
numerous advertisements calling for help in the fields, as, 
for example : 

WANTED — iooo hop-pickers to pick 624 acres of hops; big 
crop; largest and best equipped hop yard in Oregon; all on trellis 
wire; perfect accommodations; grocery store, bakery, butcher shop, 
barber shop, dancing pavilion 50x150 feet, telephone, physician, 
beautiful camping ground, 3-acre bathing pool, restaurant, provi- 
sions sold at Portland prices. We pay $1.10 per 100 pounds ; re- 
duced excursion rates on our special train. For particulars apply 
to . 

HOP-PICKERS wanted — We pay 50 cents per box, camp 

shacks free ; will be at the Hotel, August 25 till September 3, 

to sell round-trip tickets to Oregon. , grower. 

WANTED — Hop-pickers for my yard at Ore. ; pay 50 

cents per box ; will be at Hotel, August 25 till September I. 

HOP-PICKERS — Good camp ground, store, plenty wood, pay 
50 cents per box; 55 acres. Inquire . 

A rather unusual kind was the following, which appeared 
in several country newspapers : 

— WANTED — 1000 pickers for Hop Field, . We pay 

I $1.10 per 100 pounds. Perfect accommodations, good food at city 
; prices, free whiskey, dance five nights in the week, evangelists on 
Sunday, and a h of a time. 

This proved most alluring and showed the cosmopoli- 
tanism of the yard. All tastes were considered. It, 
of course, captured me, as it did many another ! I pre- 
sented myself at the Portland office of what is said to 

101 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

be the largest hop field in the world and asked for em- 
ployment. I was engaged on the spot, and agreed to 
start the next morning at eight bn a special train known 
as the " Hop Special." With a parting warning to be on 
time, the man in charge handed me my round-trip ticket, 
for which I paid $2.60, which was a little more than one 
fare. 

fiwas at the Union Station the following morning by 
half-past seven and found a motley assortment of people 
— my companions-to-be — all waiting for the "Special." 
There were men and women and children, scores and 
scores of them belonging to family groups, and in addition, 
several hundred young men and women off for a lark with 
a chance to make some money. Many of the families 
were from the country, one woman having come a dis- 
tance of 200 miles with seven children ranging in age 
from two to fifteen years. The other class, the unattached 
men and women, was mainly the city's floating, working 
population. 

It was a picturesque gathering, with an air of expect- 
ancy about it. There was to be at least a change of oc- 
cupation. The weary mother from the farm would have 
the less onerous camp life, and an opportunity to make 
some money in the field ; the clerks and factory work- 
ers and servant girls were looking forward to freedom 
and a chance to form new social ties. It was a funny- 
looking crowd as to clothes, — from the somber, old- 
fashioned, misshapen garments of the country people, to 
the rather loud trappings of the city girls. With these, 
there was a decided effort to be "smart," and gay-colored 
sweaters, outing hats, and floating veils were much in 
evidence. And everybody was chewing gum ! 

After much delay, and picture-taking, and swearing, we 

102 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

were loaded on the train, — 800 of us in twelve cars, — 
and started for the field, eighty-one miles away. The 
journey was a memorable one, to me at least. It was 
pandemonium let loose ; men and boys smoked pipes 
and cigarettes, and drank whisky from bottles they 
carried with them ; old men passed flasks to young boys, 
with voices still shrill, and they eagerly quaffed ; children 
laughed and cried in turn according as they got what 
they wanted or the reverse, while young men and maid- 
ens were growing intimate at an astonishingly rapid rate ; 
and, adding to the din, were the venders of " cracker- 
jack " and ham sandwiches. It all had a weird fascination 
for me as I traveled about from car to car ostensibly 
looking for friends. 

£Ki every stop, and the stops were many through that 
farming country with its single track, young men fairly 
hurled themselves out of the cars and into the near-by 
orchards and gathered with a free hand apples and 
prunes, in spite of protests from the owners. These 
trophies they bore back to the train, bushels of them, 
and shared with the girls. Such generosity made for 
good fellowship, and by the time we reached Inde- 
pendence, the destination of our train, couples were pil- 
lowing their heads against each other. But all this was 
rudely interfered with when the train stopped. We had 
been four hours making the journey and the end was not yet. 
VThe next step was to transfer us to great, springless hay- 
racks, or wagons, thirty or forty to each one, ranged 
along the sides and end, with feet hanging down, while 
luggage was piled up in the middle. The order went 
forth that men must walk, while women and children 
would ride. This was met with groans and shouts of 
disapproval, but all was finally amicably settled, and the 

103 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

long, grotesque procession started on its six-mile journey 
over the dusty country road. It did end at last, although 
I had my doubts at times if it ever would. But we were 
all living and able to hobble at half-past four in the after- 
noon, when we arrived at a dusty hillside at the edge of 
a wood near the hop field. 

1 had had nothing to eat since half-past six in the 
morning, so with the others I made a raid on the eating- 
house without delay. Then I followed the rest to arrange 
for my accommodation. I engaged a bed in a tent at a 
cost of$i for two 1 for the season. I was given several 
yards of denim and told to make a tick, then go to a barn 
and fill it with fresh straw, which had been brought there 
for this purpose. This straw tick was put on the ground 
in one corner of a tent to be occupied by ten women. 

When darkness came, we were a weary lot, and the 
rain was coming down, but there was a dance scheduled 
in the big hall and so we must forget our weariness and 
go. Two girls in my tent — a factory worker and a wait- 
ress — were putting on much finery for the event and 
asked me to go with them so I would get acquainted. I 
demurred a little on account of my blue calico wrapper 
and checked apron, 2 but they said, " Don't you mind; 
you'll earn some money in the hops, and can buy you 
some new clothes." Thus was I accepted, and I felt 
that here at least was true democracy. Sad to relate, 
the dance had to be postponed, for it was found that the 
musical instruments had not arrived. But I shall never 
forget that Laura and " Kid " were willing to take me and 
introduce me to their friends. 

1 1 had a companion with me, a young woman from the University 
of Oregon, whom I had engaged as an assistant. 

2 The usual uniform of the " yard " and my only outfit. 

104 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

It was midnight before the campers were finally settled, 
and some of them had to sleep out in the rain because 
they could not find their belongings. It should be ex- 
plained that the majority took their own simple equip- 
ment, and so were saved the expense that I incurred. 
Pillowless straw beds are not conducive to sleep, espe- 
cially with the rain coming in as it did in my corner. I 
opened an umbrella, and finally slept, only to dream of 
icebergs. The cold of those Oregon nights makes me 
shudder yet. The others were used to the climate, and 
so were more comfortable than I. 

Sunday was a busy day with us. We had to finish 
getting settled in the morning, and this gave an excellent 
opportunity to become acquainted. The process of 
making friends was very simple in the unconventional 
atmosphere of camp life, and by noon we were talking 
freely about the money we hoped to make in the yards * 
in the next few days or weeks. We talked less readily 
about our past. The usual question, " Have you ever 
picked before ? " was put to me, and, after my negative 
reply, some further facts seemed to be expected, so I 
volunteered the information that I had been doing vari- 
ous things, which was accepted for what it was worth, 
and the matter allowed to drop, for, as one woman in 
our tent said, with a knowing nod, " We's all done things 
we doesn't care to tell about." Again the democracy of 
the hop field triumphed, and each stranger was taken on 
her merits, regardless of previous condition of servitude. 

In the afternoon, the real business of the season began, 
— the registration of pickers, and their assignment to 

1 It maybe explained here that technically the entire acreage is called 
a " field," while the subdivisions for the purpose of work are known as 
" yards." The words are often used interchangeably, however. 

i°5 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

yards and companies. That was an experience upon 
which I look back with horror. The boss seated himself 
in a narrow doorway and ordered the crowd to get in 
line. There were in all about a thousand people on the 
grounds, including those who had come in from the sur- 
rounding country, so the line soon became a sweating, 
swearing mob. Men crowded girls almost to suffocation, 
and then, repulsed, replied with insulting speech. I was 
within a short distance of the door when registration 
opened. In half an hour, I was fully twenty feet away, 
with a great wall of human beings in front of me. This, 
plainly, was no time for politeness ; the fight for first place 
there would put a bargain-counter crush to shame, and 
make a football hero look to his laurels. The race was 
not to the strong, but to the canny. Gay girls soon began 
to pay toll in kisses or promises and were shoved up 
ahead. I was beaten about for over two hours, and I 
saw women grow dizzy and faint and drop out. I became 
so interested in the spectacle that I lost sight of the ob- 
jective point, and, that I procured a number before dark, 
was due to the dogged persistence of one of my new 
friends, who handed in my name and obtained for me 
the coveted ribbon badge stating that my number was 
185 in yard B, Company 4. There was a different color 
for each yard. Mine was pink, and I pinned it on with 
pride. Ordinary foresight would have prevented the hor- 
rors of that afternoon. It would have been so easy to 
have two registration booths, one for the men and the 
other for the women. 

Ptrie next important event of the day was the evening 
service in the big dance hall conducted by the promised 
evangelist. Practically everybody on the ground turned 
out to the stereopticon lecture on the "Parables of 

106 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

Jesus." As many said at the door, "We'll sample it." 
The music seemed to meet with approval, but when the 
minister commenced offering a stereotyped prayer he was 
greeted with " Cut it out," and "To the timber." He did 
neither, and then followed a stampede for the door by 
fully two-thirds of the men present. The rest of the 
audience engaged in conversation. The crowd saun- 
tered in to hear the next piece of music, but when the 
sermon began, it grew restive and soon voiced its disap- 
proval in no uncertain terms. I was back near the door 
and could see that the speaker was laboring under great 
difficulties. The hall was very large, and the acoustic 
properties as bad as they could possibly be, and his lan- 
tern was sputtering. But worse than all this was his in- 
ability to "get next " to the situation, to use the pickers' 
phrase. The parables of Jesus should prove interesting 
to every one; but that crowd objected to the lingo of the 
pulpit. And then they could not see the whole "show," 
for the speaker was in front of the canvas. People in my 
neighborhood swore and laughed and yelled, but to no 
avail. When I suggested that some of us tell the minis- 
ter to move, a heated discussion followed which ended 
in a challenge to me. They were of one accord that I 
"dassent do it." This acted as a spur, and she of the blue 
calico wrapper and checked apron called out, " Get over 
to one side, please." The speaker fairly leaped over, 
from the suddenness of the request, and the daring one 
was congratulated in such terms as these: "Gee, you're 
smarter than you look," "You kin have me for the askin'," 
"I'll weigh your hops heavy to-morrow;" this and more 
from the men ; from the women around me, one and all, 
"Weren't you scared?" in awestruck tones, and I said 
truly, " Yes." 

107 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

(It was a hard audience for any speaker to satisfy, but 
there was a remarkable opportunity for a man of power 
who could forget that he was a clergyman and only re- 
member that he was a human being with a message 
to other human beings. Well-fed and well-dressed citi- 
zens, I notice, hear without outward sign of distress the 
platitudes that too often go with clerical clothes, but not 
so the brothers and sisters of the wage- earning class. 
They know a good story when they hear it, and they 
know a good " show " when they see it, and they hate to 
be " done." 

We could not sleep much that night, for men were 
drinking and carousing until nearly morning, and at four, 
the first eager pickers were astir, for the real work was 
to begin on Monday in spite of the fact that it was Labor 
Day. There was so much preliminary arranging to be 
done that it was nine o'clock before we were finally started 
for our yards. But the mere picking was not of so much 
importance to me. I wanted to learn about the living 
conditions so far as young women were concerned, and I 
was learning of those all the time. It was a delight, how- 
ever, to see the various companies form and march off to 
victory, for every one expected to make a lot of money, — 
from $3 to $7 a day I was told, when I engaged work in 
Portland. 

^A hop field is a beautiful sight with its harvest of blos- 
soms hanging in enticing clusters on the wire trellises from 
twelve to fifteen feet in height. When we reached our 
division, we were instructed to take partners, as we were 
to pick two to a vine ; and to provide ourselves with bas- 
kets, enormous affairs, designed to hold twenty-five pounds 
— and hops are very light ; and a canvas bag in which 
to empty the baskets when full. Thus equipped, I was 

108 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

initiated into the mysteries of picking. One said, 
"Strip the vines, leaves and all." Another said, "Throw 
in sand, it weighs good." But the voice of the yard, 
master came loud and clear, " Pick clean, or you get no 
money." 

\Picking hops is fascinating, and there is a tradition in 
Oregon that it is a most healthful occupation, but it is 
hard, with the reaching, and stooping, and tramping over 
the rough plowed ground. Then the air is thick with 
pollen which is supposed to be health-giving, but it choked 
me, and by dinner-time I could hardly speak. But I 
had picked fifty-three pounds, according to the weigher, 
and got a coupon entitling me to fifty-six cents in cash. 
I worked about two hours and a half, because I had to 
stop at half-past eleven to go up to the restaurant to wait 
on tables. They were short of help and offered free meals 
to girls who would serve an hour. As the cost of the meal 
was only twenty cents, the job was not in great demand : 
they could earn more in the field, they thought. The 
woman in charge of the dining room had me marked from 
the first and kept asking me to help. Finally I yielded, 
and so I had to leave the field before the others to get 
my own dinner. I was paid in advance ; I would not 
work on any other basis; I took no chances on getting a 
meal after the hungry horde was fed. The twenty-cent 
meal was the best for the price that I have ever seen, but, 
in order to show its superior judgment in such matters, 
the crowd complained over the lack of pie. They told me 
to " get a move on " or they would have me " fired." At 
one o'clock, I sat down with a girl to gloat over the seventy- 
six cents I had earned since breakfast, and to wonder how 
long one could endure such weariness, when the manager 
of the dining room came along and ordered me to the 

109 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

kitchen to wash dishes. At that I struck, and so did the 
girl with me, and we loftily "walked out." But we estab- 
lished the principle that contracts with the girls must be 
regarded, if meals were to be served. 
\There was murmuring that day among the pickers be- 
cause they could not make "good" money; few, if any, 
earned over $2. Clean picking was regarded as a great 
hardship. Our meals and bed cost about seventy-five cents 
a day, and some girls did not make enough to meet that 
expense. There was much dissatisfaction, too, over the 
fact that the weighers frequently gave the young, and 
pretty, and flirtatious girls ten or twelve pounds extra 
weight. There were many opportunities in the field for 
little courtesies of the kind, and the young, attractive girl 
needed much wisdom not to become entangled by them. 
The chivalrous swain could always make excuses to pick 
in the admired one's basket while his own was standing 
empty. The wire-men 1 and the weighers were the aris- 
tocrats of the company. They were paid by the day and 
went about in leisurely fashion. As they came in contact 
with all the girls in their divisions, they had ample oppor- 
tunity to exercise their wiles. 

The field, filled with pickers, was an interesting sight. 
In one row a man and his wife picked together while 
small children crawled around in the dirt at their feet ; 
over a little was a woman with six offspring picking in 
her basket ; just beyond was a giddy girl with a forward 
boy she met on the train, — both picking fast and pass- 
ing cheap compliments ; away to the right was a red- 
cheeked German girl crying already because her clumsy 
fingers made work slow ; near her were two bright-looking 

1 Men who let down the wires holding the vines. When we wanted 
this done, we called out " Wire down," and finally the man would appear. 

no 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

high school girls eager to earn money for clothes ; not 
far away was a widow of nearly fifty with her aged 
mother, making small headway with the hops ; I taught 
them what I had learned, and then things went 
better. 

(Jt was a weary, discouraged crowd that left the yards 
the first night. We were all tired, and we had not made 
as much money as we had hoped. So we sat around 
and talked in the early evening, and later we gathered in 
the big tent and had an impromptu concert, which 
cheered us all. This tent is deserving of more than pass- 
ing mention inasmuch as it represented the crystalliza- 
tion of a desire to improve social conditions in the field. 
The very progressive body of women comprising the 
Oregon Young Women's Christian Association desired 
to do what was possible to render hop picking in a 
big public field more respectable than it is usually 
considered, and for the reason that hundreds of young 
women in the state need to avail themselves of its 
earnings, but are sometimes in moral peril while so 
doing. 

\ These women persuaded the owner of the field to allow 
them to conduct the restaurant on the grounds and main- 
tain a social center. This appealed to him as a good 
business proposition, and he readily acceded to it. Thus 
it came about that a beneficent influence was introduced 
into the field and received the hearty indorsement of 
all concerned. 

The women were beset with difficulties from the be- 
ginning, but one by one they were overcome, owing 
chiefly to the skillful management of the one * in charge 

1 Miss Frances Gage, State Secretary of Oregon and Washington. 

Ill 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

of the work. Quite as interesting to me as the picking 
itself was the opportunity to study this experiment in 
leavening the crowd. One Sunday I saw a woman on 
the kitchen steps stoning prunes to lessen the burden of 
the cooks. I went up and offered to help her. She in- 
structed me in the art, and while the work progressed, 
entertained me with stories of Turkey, a country she knew 
well. A day or two later she settled a strike in the 
kitchen, and still later in the season, when the cooks failed 
to live up to their agreement, she discharged the whole 
force of men, telephoned to Portland for more help, and 
took charge of the culinary department till relief came. 
And the pickers got their meals on time, and never knew 
that anything had happened ! 

\ This woman, who stoned prunes, settled strikes, and 
acted as cook, opened up the big tent at night, and in an 
amazingly short time mustered the " talent " of the field 
about her and gave " concerts " that made everybody 
happy. Undoubtedly, such an influence in the field was 
good, and it seems desirable that this work should con- 
tinue and be extended to all the large 1 fields where 
young women go and are constantly menaced by moral 
dangers offset by no restraining influence. The "Asso- 
ciation ladies" became quite popular with the girls, 
and it was interesting to notice how quickly some of 
them recognized the possibilities of "stylishness" in 
such chaperonage ! 

The second day of picking began at half-past four in 
the dim light and the dew. I was weary beyond expres- 
sion, for I had been helping in various ways until late the 

1 There are in addition many " family yards " employing " neighbors," 
which do not present the problems of the large field with its varied as- 
sortment of pickers. 

112 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

night before. Many of my friends were tired, too, so the 
picking went slowly in the morning. But gossip was 
rife, for we were getting pretty well acquainted, and we 
already knew that the red-cheeked, clumsy-fingered Ger- 
man girl, who wept as she picked the day before, had 
run away from her husband and baby, and was not 
reveling in her first taste of economic independence. 
This and much more was talked about while the full 
clusters were stripped into the baskets. If gossip 
had been a marketable commodity, there would have 
been no cause for complaint over small earnings that 
morning. 

VAt noon, I told my companions that I had made up 
my mind to go back to Portland that day, and they im- 
mediately supposed it was because I was not making 
money enough. They urged me to stay, saying the pick- 
ing would be better later. When they found coaxing of 
no avail, they showed their friendliness by anxiously ask- 
ing if I had enough money to take me home. And so I 
went away, weary of body, to keep an appointment very 
different in character two hundred miles from there, my 
identity unsuspected. Pickers were coming and going 
all the time, so my departure created no special comment. 
Several left when I did, saying that life was too dull, and 
others wanted to try their fortunes elsewhere. They were 
a roving lot, often looking for adventure. 

The following table contains some facts learned from 
my companions, and is presented here, strange mixture 
though it is, to illustrate the various types of women who 
answer the call of the hop field. Later comparisons 
served to verify its representative character. 



"3 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 



Name 


Nation- 
ality 


Age 
17 


Home 


Permanent 
Occupation 


Reason for Coming 


N.J. 


American 


Portland 


Student 


Health 


M. D. 


American 


38 


Antelope 


Nurse 


Profitable vacation 


L. T. 


American 


22 


Portland 


Garment maker 


Good time 


A. H. 


American 


20 


N. Lewis 
River, 
Wash. 


Waitress 


Good time 


E. S. 


German 


17 


Portland 


Student 


To make money 


J.J. 


American 


IS 


Portland 


Student 


Health 


M. G. 


German 


So 


Salem 


Farmer's wife 


Outing for family 


E. M. 


German 


15 


Portland 


Student 


To earn money for clothes 


K. L. 


American 


26 


Portland 


Laundress 


To make all she could by 
whatever means 


M.J. 


American 


50 


Portland 


Nurse 


Health and rest 


G. W. 


German 


17 


Portland 


Waitress 


To make money 


M. B. 


American 


25 


Portland 


Waitress 


Change 


M.S. 


Swede 


45 


Astoria 


Housewife 


"Just took a notion to 


N.J. 


American 


17 


Portland 


Shop-girl 


come 
To have good time 


N. C. 


American 


17 


Portland 


Shop-girl 


To have good time 


M. B. 


German 


20 


Portland 


Housewife 


Ran away from home 


A.I. 


American 


18 


Portland 


Shop-girl _ 


To have a change 


J.L. 


American 


19 


Portland 


Factory girl 


To make money 


L. K. 


German 


22 


Portland 


Factory girl 


To have outing 


K. M. 


German 


21 


Portland 


Cook 


To meet nice men ■ 


A. A. 


American 


16 


Portland 


Student_ 


To earn money 


J. G. 


Swede 


21 


Portland 


Housewife 


To have a change 


O.L. 


American 


IS 


Portland 


Student 


To earn money for clothes 


J.L. 


American 


40 


Astoria 


Housewife 


To earn money for chil- 
dren 

To earn money for chil- 
dren 

To have outing 


M. M. 


American 


32 


Astoria 


Housewife 


G.H. 


American 


25 


Portland 


Factory girl 


J. G. 


German 


26 


Portland 


Shop-girl 


To have outing 



\I carried away from the hop field a very real interest 
in all that pertains to the welfare of Oregon pickers. 
Unquestionably, certain improvements could be made in 
the organization of the army of workers and in the 
policing 1 of the grounds. Employers should be urged to 
make these changes, and to do all in their power to ban- 
ish lawlessness. It is true they meet with some difficulties 
unknown to other employers, owing to the character of 
the industry. They are obliged to take the class of people 
they can get, perhaps to a greater extent than others, 
and many of these are likely to be thriftless, or of more 
or less vicious habits, and thus difficult to control. - This 
1 One sheriff was there to keep that riotous throng in order. 

114 



HOP PICKING IN OREGON 

is particularly true of the young men, who, in turn, exer- 
cise a very decided influence over the young women. 

\Changes might be made also in the pastimes of the 
crowd. Their desire for amusement after a monotonous 
day in the field is legitimate, and should be gratified, and 
the experiment of the Young Women's Christian Asso- 
ciation would seem to indicate that wholesome entertain- 
ments would be appreciated by the majority. It would 
be unreasonable to expect such a company to settle down 
to quiet at dark satisfied with only the work. Human 
beings are not so constituted, for frequently the longest 
days of monotonous toil seem to demand nights of excit- 
ing pleasure. The factory girl in the city will dance till 
daylight after a hard day's work, and feel that only with 
such relaxation is life worth living. How much more, 
then, will such people as gather in a hop yard, with the 
spirit of an outing upon them, need to be amused. If 
nothing better be provided, the saloon and the dance hall 
will satisfy the craving. 

The chief needs of the hop fields, then, asT observed 
them, are better organization and more wholesome recrea- 
tion. The one could be cared for by the owner, the other 
by some outside group interested in social welfare, and I 
earnestly hope that both these needs will be met in the 
near future. 

\As the hop season returns, I shall want to journey out 
to Oregon to don the calico frock and apron, with the 
picker's stout gloves and neckerchief; and sleep again on 
the bed of straw ; and rise in the dawn to help harvest the 
blossoms ; and even to endure again the cruel weariness it 
implies, to enjoy the true democracy of the motley crowd 
and to watch the future realization of betterment efforts. 
Long live the Oregon Hop-pickers ! 

US 



CHAPTER VIII 
The Fruit Industries in California 

The various processes connected with preparing fruit 
for the market afford occupation during a portion of the 
year to a great many women living in or near the fruit 
centers of California. But as some phases of this work, 
like hop picking, call for the segregation of workers in 
somewhat isolated places, there are serious problems, 
other than economic ones, forcing themselves upon the 
consideration of local agencies trying to meet the needs 
of young women wage-earners. It is admittedly easier to 
carry on activities for the more or less permanent body 
of city workers employed in the various manufacturing 
communities than to supply the social needs of seasonal 
workers, the very nature of whose work draws them out 
of their natural group setting. But this very fact reveals 
the opportunity for those who honestly desire to improve 
industrial environment. The business manager can al- 
ways arrange to transport people and equipment to re- 
mote points in order to carry on his enterprise, and the 
powers that prey upon men always find it profitable, in 
spite of inconvenience, to follow in the wake of working 
groups. 

The centers chosen for the study of the conditions of 
life and the earnings of women working in the fruit in- 
dustries were Fresno and San Jos6, representing as they 
do the great fruit-bearing areas of the state of California. 

In many of the vineyards of the country surrounding 

116 



FRUIT INDUSTRIES IN CALIFORNIA 

Fresno are wineries and packing-houses where fruits are 
prepared for the market. But the crops are often sold 
unharvested and may then be sent to different points to 
be packed. In and near Fresno, are between twenty and 
twenty-five houses to which such fruit is shipped. Of 
these, only two are canneries ; the others deal in raisins 
and dried fruits. 

( A conservative estimate of the number of women work- 
ing in these places at the height of the season as given 
by the owner of the largest packing-house, who has been 
in the business fifteen years, is 1500, including Arme- 
nians, Russians, Germans, Mexicans, Italians, and Ameri- 
cans. Some 600 of these worked in the canneries before 
the dried fruit season opened. Of the whole number, 
about 70 per cent are foreign, 65 per cent married, 35 per 
cent young girls, and about 25 per cent of these, Americans. 

San Jose is the center of a great prune country, pro- 
ducing one-half of the entire prune crop of the United 
States. During the busy season, when the fruit is being 
put on the market, hundreds of women are needed. 
Their work consists chiefly in " facing " the different 
sized boxes with the various grades of prunes. In order 
to do this, the fruit is put into scalding water for a few 
minutes to soften. Before it has cooled each prune 
is flattened out as large as possible by means of a pecu- 
liar rolling motion, then laid evenly on a fancy paper lin- 
ing, sometimes in double rows with a "fencing" around, 
and sometimes in single rows. The price paid for this 
work is three or four cents a box. The heat and constant 
pressure often cause blisters and calloused thumbs, women 
having to discontinue work on this account. 

In some of the houses, stools and benches are furnished, 
and may be used when desired, but many prefer to stand, 

117 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

feeling they can accomplish more. A wage of $2 repre- 
sents a hard day's toil for even the oldest hand. It is 
no wonder the packers have trouble in securing enough 
help in the rush season, for in addition to the hard labor 
extra hands are taken on and dropped out at the pleasure 
of the firm. 

^Besides the dried-fruit houses, there are three or four 
canneries in San Jos£. Here, hundreds of women find 
occupation for three, four, or five months. Their work is 
mostly peeling and putting the fruit in cans, although 
woman's part here is becoming less each year, as peeling- 
and canning-machines are now being used by some firms, 
and there is also an invention for labeling the cans, both 
of which mechanical devices do the work of women. 

\The canneries open in June, with cherries in San Jose, 
but not much before the beginning of August in Fresno. 
In the latter place they close in September. The dried- 
fruit packing then begins and lasts steadily through No- 
vember in all the houses, and even into January in those that 
make a specialty of raisins. The canneries in San Jose are 
in operation much longer, for there tomatoes are put up, 
and the work continues until the end of October. Even 
after the dried fruit as a whole is finished there are short 
orders throughout the winter, so that it is sometimes pos- 
sible for one to secure employment most of the year. 
On the face of it, it seems as if there were work in some 
form of fruit all the year. The packers frequently make 
this statement, but probably not more than two per cent 
of all the women working in the summer could get 
employment after the rush season is over. 

The first thing one hears on mentioning fruit is the 
possibility of making large sums in the canneries and dry- 
ing-houses. Every one tells about some one else who 

118 



FRUIT INDUSTRIES IN CALIFORNIA 

makes $4 or $5 a day, but it was not possible to find any 
such fortunate individuals. There are, however, a few 
workers of many years' standing who have acquired great 
speed in a special line, and these, under exceptional con- 
ditions, that is, when the fruit is of just the right quality, 
are able to make from $3 to $4 a day while these condi- 
tions last. 

x Wages depend on the kind of fruit and the rate at 
which it comes in. Very few were found who could make 
more than $1.75 a day at canning tomatoes, while these 
same women said they always made $3 at peaches. It 
matters not what the work is, nor how different it appears 
to an outsider, the whole system of payment seems to be 
regulated so that the workers get about the same amount. 
If one factory pays a little more a box, other things are 
so arranged as to make it, in the end, the same as in the 
place paying a lower rate. Making a rough estimate, it 
seems safe to say that, for an experienced employee, 
who is strong enough to work steadily and who has the 
average speed, the wage at the end of the season would 
be about $2 a day. 

^ The work in fruit is almost entirely piece-work, and al- 
though the average daily wage may be about the same 
for the different processes, there is considerable diversity 
in the plan of payment and the labor involved. " Fac- 
ing " prunes brings three cents a box, making possible a 
daily wage from 75 cents to $3 according to the speed 
of the worker. In filling cartons, the method is for seven 
girls to work at a table, and when each one has filled a 
box of forty-eight prunes, the table is credited with four- 
teen cents. The division of funds is made later. Much 
of this work is agreeable. 

\ Labor in the canneries is likely to be hard and un- 

119 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

pleasant. In many places women are not allowed to sit, 
and the heat and steam from boiling fruit contribute 
to make the workrooms extremely uncomfortable. The 
floor is often covered with a thick layer of slime, and al- 
though the women work on slightly raised platforms, they 
nearly all find it necessary to wear overshoes. In addi- 
tion to this discomfort, their fingers blister from contact 
with hot fruit. 

\The rate paid for preparing tomatoes 1 is usually two 
and a half cents a pan. If a woman remains a whole 
season she is paid a bonus at the end, which makes the 
rate equal to three cents a pan. This, of course, is an 
inducement to the worker to remain in the same 
establishment. Filling brings 20 cents for 225 closely 
packed cans, and i2|- cents for 250 not so well filled. A 
swift worker may earn from $2 to $3 at either of these 
processes. Rates vary somewhat with different kinds of 
fruits ; for instance, filling cans with peaches brings n^- 
cents an hour, some companies giving a bonus of 10 per 
cent if the worker remains the season, while pitters re- 
ceive 14 cents an hour. The rate for cutting open and 
peeling peaches is 20 cents a box of from 70 to 75 
pounds. More money can be made with peaches than 
with pears, because the latter are harder to peel. 

/The rate for packing fresh grapes is four cents a crate 
of 33 pounds, with a maximum wage of $3 a day. Six- 
teen girls can pack 960 crates or one carload of grapes 
in a day. Overtime is paid for in one vineyard at the 
rate of 55 cents for two hours at night and $2.65 for work 
on Sunday. 

j Fig packing employs a good many women. The figs 
are left on the trees to dry, and are washed, sorted, and 

1 Included with fruit, as they are canned in the same establishments. 

I20 



FRUIT INDUSTRIES IN CALIFORNIA 

steamed in the packing-houses. One can learn to pack 
in a day, and the usual wage is one cent for packing a 
pound and a half brick, or 3^ cents for a box of four pounds. 
The daily wage varies from $1 to $4. The fig season is 
a long one, as there are many tons of the dried fruit which 
must be packed in bricks and boxes. The lye used in the 
curing process is most injurious to the hands, and women 
often work with fingers wrapped in rags. One woman was 
found whose entire hand was sore and done up in a cloth, 
while she toiled away thus crippled. 
\ Vineyard work entails difficulties in regard to living 
arrangements similar to those of the hop fields, since it 
is usually necessary to assemble the workers in rural 
colonies. In one vineyard, the campers had to pitch 
their tents near a foul pig-pen. There was no drainage, 
and no attention whatever was paid to refuse, and, as a 
result, several died of typhoid fever before the season 
closed. 

An occupation of this character naturally does not 
attract the most efficient workers but rather those girls 
who must earn their spending money, and married women 
struggling to help pay for their homes and to secure 
additional comforts for their families. The fruit industry 
offers work to a class of women, the housekeepers, who 
cannot find other ways of earning so much. More and 
more the thrifty, hardy, foreign element is drifting into 
the industry and crowding back the weaker American 
sister. The Italians who work are practically all married 
and from forty to fifty years of age. These, and other 
foreigners, fill the canneries, and children old enough 
to be of service work with their mothers. One little girl 
of ten said that in vacation she made $1 a day working 
from six in the morning till eight at night. She looked 

121 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

well cared for and healthy, and insisted that she enjoyed 
the work. The married women do not spend their earn- 
ings in improving their own present condition, but seem 
inspired with a desire to save for their old age. They are 
indefatigable in their labor and look upon the opportunity 
of thus adding to their incomes as a special gift of Provi- 
dence. 

(The Armenians are a totally different type and have 
come to California within the last ten years. They were 
of the farming class in their own country, and, seemingly, 
their one ambition is to own land. The girls work steadily 
in the fruit, and the mothers occasionally, as they can spare 
time from home. Almost without exception, they own or 
rent good cottages, which are comfortably furnished and 
have pianos, telephones, and various modern improve- 
ments. The colony maintains a free school for the 
purpose of teaching the Armenian language and customs 
to children born in America. It is very noticeable, that 
whereas children of other extraction invariably speak 
English among themselves, one can walk for blocks in 
the Armenian quarter of Fresno and hear the children 
speaking only Armenian. 

I It is difficult to discover what proportion of their wages 
the Armenian girls have for themselves. They probably 
turn a large part over to the family, but certainly retain 
enough to dress very well. The colony has several 
churches, and a good deal of social life, emanating from 
these. There was an attempt in Fresno to arrange for 
special clubs and classes among these girls, but it was 
not a great success. They are apparently more interested 
in cleanliness than in literature, for they have a number of 
bath-houses in constant use. These are open to the 
public Saturdays and Sundays. 

122 



FRUIT INDUSTRIES IN CALIFORNIA 



• 



The Russians, on the other hand, are in need of some 
one to teach them the ordinary laws of hygiene. They 
are untidy and dirty, and many babies have serious eye 
trouble. These people have been coming to the West 
in great numbers within the last few years. They claim 
to be of German descent, having been in Russia only two 
generations, and among themselves speak only German. 
They belong to the Lutheran church. It is said by those 
who are in a position to know that the men are often 
heavy drinkers and abuse their wives, deserting them, or 
ceasing work as soon as the fruit season opens. 

\The Russians are the only white people who will pick 
grapes, the other pickers being Japanese, Chinese, and 
Indians. Whole families of Russians travel from vineyard 
to vineyard doing this most laborious work. The chil- 
dren are thus kept out of school. It is a common thing 
for a woman to be working in a packing-house, two or 
three older girls with her, her husband, if at work, in an- 
other department of the same house, and half a dozen 
younger children scrambling about in the tents outside, 
one of them caring for the latest baby, often so young 
that the mother has to leave her work every hour or two 
to nurse it. There is a day nursery in Fresno to care for 
the Russian babies, but the mothers prefer to leave them 
with neighbors. These people left Russia because of the 
struggle for existence there, and have only one aim in 
life — to buy land, at least enough for a home. Unlike 
the Armenians, many of whom own large orchards and 
vineyards about Fresno, the Russians have not yet become 
landowners of consequence. 

( Among the Americans there are more girls than married 
women, and so far as could be discovered nearly all use 
their earnings for themselves. Those who work in the 

123 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

packing-houses out of town come from ranches owned by 
their parents, who could well afford to support them. 
They are weary of home, and long for the independence 
that goes with wage-earning. In the towns the conditions 
are almost the same. It is said that girls who wish 
can get work in the telephone offices or stores when 
the fruit season ends, but few of the Americans care 
for that type of labor. After three or four months' 
work, these girls have accumulated a respectable sum of 
money with which they take music lessons or go to 
business college. Most of the work paid for by the day, 
such as papering boxes, is done by Americans. The work 
is clean, and the wage is $1.50 a day, but not so lucrative 
as certain kinds of piece-work and so does not appeal 
to the foreigners, who work at full speed every moment. 
In some places it is necessary for the foreman to go 
around at twelve and forbid these foreign women to 
touch the fruit for half an hour or they would not stop 
long enough to eat their lunches. 

! It was interesting to watch the women on their way to 
work in the early morning. Long before seven many 
could be seen going on bicycles, and others on foot, the 
procession presenting a motley appearance. The Russian 
women generally wore some loose-fitting dark waist, 
woolen skirt and apron. Many of the young girls were 
nicely dressed in suitable wash clothes. Some wore ex- 
pensive white lingerie waists, others soiled cheap ones. 
One or two were seen in spotless white, with white shoes 
and sunshades, going airily to work. 

The town of Fresno offers for amusement one stock 
theater and a few vaudeville houses. There is a roller- 
skating rink, a swimming pool, and a public picnic 
ground some distance from town. The band concerts in 

124 



FRUIT INDUSTRIES IN CALIFORNIA 

the park on Sunday are the only forms of public enter- 
tainment that could be called educational, and yet 
other forms might easily be supplied for the alert young 
workers. 

During the fruit season, the older women are, as a rule, 
too tired to go anywhere. When it is over, the foreign 
colonies have their own dances and social gatherings, and 
the Americans have the usual life of the fairly comfort- 
able working class in a small place, and the girls are eager 
for anything that affords diversion. Whatever amuse- 
ments come to town are within the financial reach of nearly 
all. 

Both in San Jos6 and in Fresno an attempt was made 
to discover from the women who work in the fruit in- 
dustry whether it is possible for a person to earn enough 
by working steadily from the opening of the canneries to 
the end of the dried fruit season to live on the remainder 
of the year. Almost without exception they said, "No," 
or " I can't say because I don't have to do it," or " I 
wouldn't like to try." Only one woman was found who 
thought it would be possible. It takes several seasons to 
acquire a very remunerative speed; beginners seldom 
make more than 75 cents or $1 a day, working up to 
$1.50 toward the end of the season. 

Little or nothing has been done by employers to im- 
prove surroundings or add comforts for the benefit of the 
women employed. The hours are long and most lines of 
work require constant standing. In December and 
January the open shed-like houses in use become very 
cold. Women sometimes keep on their wraps and stand 
in boxes partly filled with hot bricks, or simply endure 
the cold as best they can. It takes a very hardy 
constitution to survive the strain of many years in the 

125 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

fruit industry. In order to earn $2 or $3 a day, even 
experienced people complain of great nervous strain. 
Those who earn as much as $4 work with tense nerves 
and a feverish haste that means physical breakdown 
eventually. 

'It matters not with the foreign element how many 
children the mother has, she works through the season. 
One little boy was seen in a tent at a raisin packing-house 
in a vineyard, who was caring for a three-weeks-old 
brother while the mother worked. An experienced 
woman said this was common, and later a woman at work 
on a seeder was found, who had a baby just three days 
old. Now and then the young mother, hot and excited, 
stopped long enough to nurse the baby when it was 
brought to her. Such cases savor of the sweatshop and 
crowded city populations, and should not be tolerated in 
communities otherwise free from the worst features of 
modern industry. 

f We investigated -eleven establishments in San Jos£ em- 
ploying 1000 women and twelve in Fresno employing 
2000. We were able to become very well acquainted 
with many of the women both in their homes and work 
places, and in the tables following some facts in regard 
to fifty of these women appear. The twenty-five in each 
table, it should be said, represent various establishments 
and processes in the two centers studied, and represent 
fairly the different types of women employed. As the 
terms used in connection with the form of employment 
are self-explanatory, no attempt has been made to de- 
scribe the processes. 



126 



FRUIT INDUSTRIES IN CALIFORNIA 





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128 



FRUIT INDUSTRIES IN CALIFORNIA 

It will be observed that there is wide variation in age 
as in earning capacity and cost of living. While many 
women staying at home contribute to family support, 
others do not, and apparently have their earnings for per- 
sonal use. This is particularly true of the Americans. 
After working hours, they may be seen walking about 
with very good clothes on, looking for some form of en- 
tertainment. They are the ones who need greater oppor- 
tunity for social life, and higher forms of recreation. 
They are ambitious, and use the fruit industry only as 
a stepping-stone to greater achievements. 

But the foreign women need this and more. They 
need instruction in the English language and a knowledge 
of the customs and standards of the country in which 
they live. The mothers need to be taught that their 
course is not only injuring their own health, but their 
children's as well. 

Several institutions are already at work trying to extend 
opportunities to wage-earning women in the fruitcenters, 
and their efforts might well be reenforced. 



129 



CHAPTER IX 
Women in the Coal Fields of Pennsylvania 

Much is known in a general way of life in the mining 
regions of Pennsylvania, 1 and very much detailed informa- 
tion in regard to working conditions in the mines has 
been given to the public, but no special investigation of 
the separate towns centered mainly on the social life of 
women has been made before this. It is, therefore, hoped 
that this study will contribute in a small way to a more 
intimate knowledge of an important body of people and 
their needs. 

Before proceeding to a discussion of the towns, it may 
be well to locate definitely the two great mining sections 
of the state. The anthracite fields 2 embrace a territory 
of about 3300 square miles 3 in three parallel valleys in 
the northeastern part of the state, while the bituminous 
fields underlie about 15,800 square miles in six parallel 
valleys in the southwestern part of the state. 4 

1 The valuable work of Dr. Peter Roberts on " Anthracite Coal 
Communities " should be mentioned here and should be read for a gen- 
eral view of the situation. Dr. Roberts himself was most helpful in this 
investigation not only to the director, but also to Miss Tanner and Miss 
Foote, the two investigators in the field. 

2 The general boundaries are as follows : on the north by the north 
branch of the Susquehanna, on the east by the Delaware and Lehigh 
rivers, and on the west by the Susquehanna. 

3 " Less than one sixth of this, or about 484 square miles, is underlaid 
by workable deposits of coal." " Mines and Quarries," 1902 Special 
Census Report, p. 675. 

4 Running from the Ohio and Maryland lines well on toward New 
York. 

130 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 

The counties included in the anthracite area (12 coun- 
ties), with percentage of production, are : Carbon, 7.8 ; 
Columbia, 1.8 ; Dauphin, 1 ; Lackawanna, 29.2 ; Leb- 
anon ' y l Luzerne, 20.8 ; Northumberland, 1.1 ; Schuyl- 
kill, 2.7 ; Sullivan, .8 ; Susquehanna, 3.48 ; Wayne and 
Wyoming. 1 The counties included in the bituminous 
area (24 counties) are : Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, 
Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Center, Clarion, Clear- 
field, Clinton, Elk, Fayette, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, 
Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, Mercer, Somerset, Tioga, 
Washington, and Westmoreland. 

Fayette, Westmoreland, Allegheny, and Cambria are the 
four most important counties so far as output of coal is 
concerned. 

A tabular comparison 2 of the numerical importance of 
the two sections is now presented. 





Bituminous 


Anthracite 


Number of mines 
Number of operators 
Number of salaried officials, 3 etc. 
Number of wage-earners 3 


1,023 

514 

3>830 

92,095 


334 
119 

3,014 
69,691 



It will be seen that the anthracite coal fields extend from 
Forest City on the north to a little south of Pottsville, in a 
long oval. This embraces three coal basins — the Wyo- 
ming, which is also the largest, including Nanticoke and 
Forest City, with the intervening places ; the Lehigh, lying 
about Hazleton, and the Schuylkill, centering about Shen- 

1 These counties produced nothing in 1902. 

2 " Mines and Quarries," 1902 Special Census Report, p. 291. The 
figures for normal years are nearly double for employees. 

8 The average number is given here. 

131 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

andoah and Mahanoy City, while the bituminous fields are 
scattered over a larger area, with centers at Johnstown, 
Greensburg, Connellsville, Punxsutawney, Spangler and 
Patton, Indiana and Du Bois. 

With the most important centers in mind, our work was 
undertaken. No attempt was made to visit all the towns 
and patches in either section, but only to select certain 
places which should be typical of the best, average, and 
worst conditions. The places visited were as follows : 

Anthracite region. — Audenried (Carbon Co.) ; Dickson 
and Priceburg (Lackawanna Co.); Drifton, Duryea, and 
Edwardsville (Luzerne Co.); Forest City (Susquehanna 
Co.); Freeland, Hazleton, Harleigh, Jeanesville, and 
Jeddo (Luzerne Co.); Jessup (Lackawanna Co.); Lattimer 
I and II (Luzerne Co.); Mahanoy City (Schuylkill Co.); 
Mayfield (Lackawanna Co.); Milnesville (Luzerne Co.); 
McAdoo (Schuylkill Co.); Nanticoke, Ninth District 
(Hazleton) (Luzerne Co.); Old Forge and Mudtown, and 
Olyphant (Lackawanna Co.); Parkplace (Schuylkill Co.); 
Pittston and West Pittston (Luzerne Co.); Shenandoah 
and Trenton (Schuylkill Co.); Upper Lehigh, Warrior 
Run, and Wilkesbarre (Luzerne Co.). 

Bituminous region. — Adrian and Anita (Jefferson Co.) ; 
Barnesboro (Cambria Co.); Big Soldier (Jefferson Co.); 
Cambria (Johnstown) (Cambria Co.); Chambersville (In- 
diana Co.); Conemaugh and Franklin (Cambria Co.); 
Connellsville (Fayette Co.); Crabtree (Westmoreland Co.); 
Creekside (Indiana Co.) ; Du Bois (Clearfield Co.) ; Ehren- 
feld (Cambria Co.) ; Elenora (Jefferson Co.) ; Eriton (Clear- 
field Co.); Ernest (Indiana Co.); Fayette City (Fayette 
Co.); Florenza (Jefferson Co.); Forbes Roads, Greensburg, 
Hannastown, Haydenville, Huff, Jamison I (Westmoreland 
Co.) ; Johnstown (Cambria Co.) ; Monongahela (Washington 
Co.); Mt. Pleasant (Westmoreland Co.); Patton (Cambria 

132 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 

Co.); Penfield (Clearfield Co.); Punxsutawney (Jefferson 
Co.); Rossiter (Indiana Co.); South Fork and Spangler 
(Cambria Co.); Sykesville (Jefferson Co.); St. Benedict 
(Cambria Co.); Tyler (Clearfield Co.); Walston (Jefferson 
Co.); Windber (Somerset Co.). 

An investigation of this kind naturally resolves itself 
into a study of foreign population. As the Americans are 
found only in positions of more or less importance around 
the mines, it was the life of the immigrant woman in 
her local setting that absorbed attention. The nationalities 
of the immigrants are practically the same in both sections. 
Sixty per cent of the miners and almost all the mine la- 
borers are Slavs, 1 Lithuanians, and Italians ; English, Welsh, 
Irish, and Germans do only highly skilled work. The few 
Jews in the coal fields are engaged in trade, having followed 
the various nationalities coming into the coal fields. 

A detailed account of the two sections is now presented : 

(A) Anthracite Fields 

Probably 75 per cent of the houses in some sections are 
still owned by the companies, although one frequently 
hears it said that the company house is fast becoming a 
thing of the past. The newly arrived immigrant is likely 
to come without his family, so he boards with some one of 
his own race, as many as twenty or thirty men crowding 
into a four-room house with a man and his wife and family. 
In such cases three rooms, or perhaps four, are used as 
bedrooms, leaving only a lean-to to serve as kitchen and 
living room. The family sleeps in one room and the board- 
ers in the rest, one set occupying the beds at night and 
another during the day, if they happen to have a night 

1 Including Slovaks, Ruthenians, Hungarians, Magyars, Poles, and 
Bohemians, as the term is used in the Pennsylvania mining regions. 

133 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

shift at the mine. Sometimes, however, boarders sleep in 
the room with the family. The woman does all the house- 
work and cooking for the men, each man usually buying 
his own food and paying her a certain sum for cooking it. 
The houses in which such immigrants live usually have 
four rooms with a lean-to. They are poorly built and cold 
in winter. The rent averages $i per month per room. 
After the married immigrant has been here a year or 
two, he brings over his family. They set up housekeeping 
in one of these old houses, taking boarders as just described. 
But they soon begin to save money to buy a house and lot. 
They accomplish this in the course of five or six years and 
usually have a house in a better locality, with five or six 
rooms, not very well built perhaps, but a great improve- 
ment over the old one. They have a parlor with lace 
curtains, rocking-chairs, and a gorgeous lamp, and in the 
kitchen they put a big range costing $30 or $40. They 
may not have a lawn in front of the house, but generally 
there is a vegetable garden at the back. 

y The third class of homes consists of those occupied by 
the skilled miners. They are usually six- or seven-room 
houses, comfortably built and furnished like any simple 
American home. In any case, the skilled workers are 
Americans to all intents and purposes, and have no 
special need of help. 

Besides the housing conditions, there are certain other 
characteristics of the anthracite fields which deserve men- 
tion. The water supply all through the region is good, 
usually coming from springs in the mountains, and there 
is a fair supply for each locality, though not often a faucet 
in each house. 

^ The natural surroundings are beautiful, but not infre- 
quently a village grows on a culm heap or between two 

r 34 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 

culm heaps, so that the children play in coal from morning 
till night, and the women see nothing but blackness from 
the windows. The culm heap 1 and the breakers are inev- 
itable evils, but it is surely not necessary for houses to be 
built close to them, when a walk of five minutes would bring 
the people to grass and often to an attractive view as well. 
/— Throughout the anthracite fields the women among 
the Slavs are in the minority, and are generally married 
early and kept busy at home with the usual duties and 
many boarders. But scattered through the region are 
silk-mills, knitting-mills, and shirt factories, which employ 
young girls. In these the laws regarding child labor and 
the hours and conditions of work are not rigorously en- 
forced, and many hardships result. Conditions in the silk- 
mills are not by any means so good as could be desired. 

(B) Bituminous Fields 

In the bituminous fields the company house is in evi- 
dence everywhere. When an operator opens a mine, he 
lets a contract to a builder to put up a town of from fifty 
to three hundred houses. In their worst state these houses 
have four or five rooms, no clapboards or foundations, and 
a very thin coat of plaster inside, and rent for from $4 
to $9 a month, making in general an average of $1 per 
month per room as in the anthracite fields. There are 
no water faucets in the houses, and often there are only 
three or four in the town. The average house is clap- 
boarded, but has no foundation, or only a board one. The 
best houses are found at Ernest and have six rooms, are 
clapboarded, have stone foundations and a fairly good 
coat of plaster and a faucet in each kitchen. In this 

1 Successful efforts have been made to reduce the culm heap some- 
what by converting part of it into a marketable product. 

J 35 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

town the houses for the bosses have also an indoor closet 
and bath. In many places the companies erected no 
outdoor closets when the houses were built, and the people 
have had to provide them. The result is buildings which 
in some cases do not provide for the requirements of 
decency, and never for those of health. In other cases 
the companies had outhouses built, but they are in groups 
of six or eight to serve for a block. It is possible 
that part of these are supposed to be reserved for women 
and part for men, but they are rarely so used. 

The immigrant in the bituminous fields has small oppor- 
tunity to buy a house and lot for himself, since the com- 
pany will not sell him land even if he be disposed to buy. 
He does not, therefore, have the same chance to improve 
his surroundings that he would have in the anthracite fields, 
and one strong incentive to saving is taken away. Yet, 
owing to the exigencies of bituminous mining, the company 
house seems to be the only practicable thing. 1 

In several of these towns the water supply is bad and 
typhoid fever not uncommon. This is not entirely the 
fault of the companies, as the water is not naturally so 
good as in the anthracite fields. At the same time some 
measures should be taken to make the water drinkable. 
In several cases there was only one place in the town 
where drinking water could be obtained, and often the 
Americans were afraid to use that without boiling. 

The company towns have no sidewalks and no proper 
method of garbage disposal. Streets and alleys are 
very dirty, and there is not even a pretense of cleaning 
them, as there is in the anthracite fields. They clean up 
when there is an epidemic. These places do not give the 

1 The life of a mine is only about ten years, and men could not afford 
to own homes for such a sojourn. 

136 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 

impression of crowding, as do the " patches " in the 
anthracite fields. The worst of the houses in the former 
are not so bad as the worst in the latter; but neither do the 
best in the one case compare with the best in the other. 

The women marry young, as in the anthracite section, 
and are in the main given over to the arduous duties of 
housekeeping and taking boarders, besides trying to care 
for numerous small children. There are comparatively 
few factories here. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that in many respects 
living conditions in both the anthracite and bituminous 
fields are most undesirable. Other features of the two 
regions, such as amusements and moral conditions, may 
well be discussed together. 

Amusements 

The amusements are few in number and are practically 
all traceable to liquor drinking. Even where there. are 
theaters and concerts the immigrants do not patronize 
them owing to their imperfect understanding of English ; 
and for the same reason they do not frequent even the 
nickelodeons and penny arcades to any extent. What 
characteristic social life they have centers about wed- 
dings and christenings, when a supply of liquor is bought 
and a carousal of several days follows. Then, too, 
in summer, there are many dances, with liquor always 
circulating freely. Every one, from the baby to the 
grandmother, goes to these dances. If there were no 
liquor sold, it is probable that such dances would be an 
innocent enough form of amusement, for the round dance 
is seldom seen. As they are actually conducted, however, 
women and children, as well as men, drink ; ugly tempers 
and evil passions are aroused, and there are frequent fights ; 

137 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

while after the dance young men and women find oppor- 
tunity to indulge their inflamed passions. During the 
summer many picnics are held which are prolonged till 
late in the evening with dancing and liquor. This is a 
source of grave danger to the girls, and is deplored by the 
better element among the immigrants themselves. 

Both dances and picnics are held under various aus- 
pices. Sometimes they are conducted by one of the men's 
societies of the Catholic church, and sometimes by the 
church itself, for the purpose of raising money. Usually 
there is a charge of 25 cents a couple, and invariably the 
profits from the liquor selling go into the church treasury. 
Neither picnics nor balls seem to be as common in the 
bituminous fields as in the anthracite. 

Aside from the foregoing the only amusement is 
beer drinking, either at home or in the saloons. In most 
places in the anthracite fields little pretense is made of 
enforcing the Sunday laws, and some of the better class 
of Americans are doubtful as to the wisdom of enforcement. 
The real question seems to be, whether it is better for men 
to drink at home or in the saloon. If the saloons are 
closed on Sunday, the men in one house together buy a 
keg of beer, which must be consumed by Monday morning 
or it will spoil. The result is a grand debauch, in which 
the women and children are participants. If the men 
could go to the saloon, the women and children would 
probably get no beer and the men less, because it would 
cost more. 

In the bituminous fields saloons are not so numerous, 
and the laws are more strictly enforced. In the com- 
pany towns there are no saloons, but to counterbalance 
this the beer wagon makes a visit every day or two, and 
the people keep beer in the house by the keg. 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 



Moral Conditions 

The lax moral conditions among the immigrants arise 
in large part from the drink evil, but also in part from 
the conditions under which they live. There is no doubt 
that all nationalities are heavy drinkers and have brought 
the habit with them from their own countries. At home, 
however, they had but little money, and it is possible 
that the liquor they had was less adulterated than 
ours, and that it did less harm than when taken in our 
climate. However that may be, what they get here 
undoubtedly leads to most of the fights and murders 
among them and to much of the vice. 

A difficulty arises from the necessity of a daily bath. 
The mine workers come home with coal dust ground into 
them from head to foot and find a tub bath a necessity. 
In winter there is no place for this except in the kitchen 
in the presence of the women and children. This lack 
of privacy is demoralizing. 

The three factors of drink, crowding, and the daily bath 
unite to make the standard of purity in the coal fields 
admittedly a low one. Illegitimate children are not un- 
common, though when a mother is unmarried, the priest 
usually makes it his business to see that the father of her 
child marries her. 

Favorable Conditions 

Aside from these serious evils, little else can be charged 
against the immigrants. Their standard of living is lower 
than ours, but they change all this in an amazingly short 
time, if they have any chance at all. Furthermore, they 
are frugal and thrifty, and law-abiding and peaceable, 
when not under the influence of liquor. All nationalities, 

139 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

except perhaps the Italian, are well developed, sturdy, 
healthy people. Taking them all in all, the immigrants 
in the coal fields are neither vicious nor criminal ; they 
are only ignorant and undisciplined. Those who know 
them best say that they are most teachable, when those 
who would help them have won their confidence. Their 
early experiences in the New World may have given 
them just cause to be suspicious of the stranger, and 
to view with distrust any overtures that may be made 
to them even by persons whose motives are above 
reproach. 

It seems desirable here for purposes of definiteness 
and comparison to put in tabular form certain classes 
of facts, in accordance with a twofold grouping, as 
follows : 

First, general information in regard to each place 
studied, including population and occupations of 
women. 

Second, social life. For lack of a better term this has 
been made to include amusements, clubs, and classes for 
women, and church undertakings of a definitely social, as 
distinct from a purely religious, character. 1 The kinder- 
garten has been considered in undertakings for women on 
account of its great importance to mothers. The public 
schools have not been mentioned, as they are found in 
accordance with the law in every town. 

1 It is sometimes difficult to divide church work in this way without 
appearing to discriminate in favor of certain churches, and the fact that 
only one or two denominations are reported as doing special social 
work does not mean that the others are not doing valuable work 
along distinctly religious lines. 



140 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 



ANTHRACITE FIELDS 
Table I — General Information 



Place 


Popula- 
tion « 


Occupations of Women 


Audenried 


2000 


Housekeeping. 3 Work in factories near. 


Dickson and Priceburg a 


5000 


Housekeeping. 100 girls in silk-mill. 


Drifton 


2129 


Housekeeping. 


Duryea 


1500 


Housekeeping. 


Edwardsville 


5165 


Housekeeping. Work in factories in 

Wilkesbarre. 
Housekeeping. 50 girls in silk-mill. 


Forest City 


4279 


Freeland 


5254 


Housekeeping. 120 girls in silk-mill. 220 
girls in overall factory. 


Harleigh 


585 


Housekeeping. A few girls in near-by mills. 


Hazleton 


14,230 


Housekeeping and factory work; * 498 in 
three shirt factories^ 388 in two silk- 
mills; 160 in two knitting-mills; many 
go to Waverly factories. 


Jeanesville s 


1070 


Housekeeping. Work in factories in 
Hazleton. 


Jeddo 


1632 


Housekeeping. Work in factories in 
near-by towns. 


Jessup 


3242 


Housekeeping. 


Lattimer I and II 


1600 6 


Housekeeping. A few in near-by factories. 


Mahanoy City 


15,504 


Housekeeping. 220 girls in three shirt 

factories.^ 
Housekeeping. 


Mayfield 


6000 7 


Milnesville 


824 


Housekeeping. Factory work in near-by 
towns. 


McAdoo 


2122 


Housekeeping. 60 girls inshirt factory. 


Nanticoke 


12,116 


Housekeeping. 10 200 girls in two silk-mills 
and one hosiery-mill. 


"Ninth District" * 


50009 


Housekeeping." A few in Hazleton mills. 


Old Forge and Mudtown 


5630 


Housekeeping. Work in Taylor factories. 


Olyphant 


6180 


Housekeeping. 300 girls in silk-mill. 


Parkplace 


188 


Housekeeping. 


Pittston 
West Pittston 


12,556 I 
5846 f 


Housekeeping. Work in factories. 


Shenandoah 


20,321 


Housekeeping. Varied factory work. 


Trenton 


3009 


Housekeeping. 


Upper Lehigh 


1200 


Housekeeping. 20-30 girls in near-by mills. 


Warrior Run 


955" 


Housekeeping. Work in factories in 
Wilkesbarre. 


Wilkesbarre 


5i,72i 


Housekeeping. Varied industries. 



1 Figures from the Census of 1900 used. 

2 The term "housekeeping" is meant to include taking boarders, as the great 
majority of women engage in this work. 

3 The mining center frequently includes more than a political division. 

4 These girls come mostly from Audenried, Freeland, and other small near-by 
towns. 

s Iron works here also employing 325 men. 
6 Estimated at the present time at about 2200. 
? Approximate. 

8 Just outside the city limits of Hazelton. 

9 Approximate. 

10 Girls marry before the age of 16 as a rule, especially among the Italians. 

11 Now about 1200. 



141 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 



BITUMINOUS FIELDS 

Table I — General Information 





Place 


Popula- 
tion 


Occupations of Women 


Adrian 


8oo* 


Housekeeping. 




Anita 


2500 


Housekeeping. 




Barnesboro 


1482 2 


Housekeeping. 




Big Soldier 


900 x 


Housekeeping. 




Cambria 3 


1200 1 


Housekeeping. 




Chambersville 


400 1 


Housekeeping. 




Conemaugh and 


2175 


Housekeeping. 




Franklin * 


961 s 


Housekeeping. 




Connellsville 6 


7160 


Housekeeping. 




Crabtree or Jamison IV 


2000 r 


Housekeeping. 




Creekside 


1000 l 


Housekeeping. 




Du Bois 7 


9375 


Housekeeping. 


100 girls in overall factory. 


Ehrenfeld 


567 


Housekeeping. 




Elenora 


1500 


Housekeeping. 




Eriton 


200 r 


Housekeeping. 




Ernest 


2600 J 


Housekeeping. 




Fayette City 


1595 


Housekeeping. 




Florenza [III 


1500 « 


Housekeeping. 




Forbes Roads or Jamison 


1000 8 


Housekeeping. 




Greensburg 9 


6508 


Housekeeping. 




Hannastown or Jamison II 


2000 8 


Housekeeping. 




Haydenville 


600 8 


Housekeeping. 




HuS/o 


1000 s 


Housekeeping. 


80 in brass-fitting factory. 


Jamison I 


1200 3 


Housekeeping. 




Johnstown » 


35,936 " 


Housekeeping. 


Some factory work. 


Monongahela « 


5173 


Housekeeping. 




Mt. Pleasant «♦ 


4745 


Housekeeping. 


200 girls in glass factory. 


Patton *s 


2651 l6 


Housekeeping. 




Penfield «* 


716 


Housekeeping. 




Punxsutawney l8 


4375 t9 


Housekeeping. 

tory. 
Housekeeping. 


50 girls in shirtwaist fac- 


Rossiter 


4000 8 




South Fork 


2635 


Housekeeping. 




Spangler 


1616 30 


Housekeeping. 




Sykesville ** 


156 31 


Housekeeping. 




St. Benedict 


400 8 


Housekeeping. 




Tyler * 


2000 8 


Housekeeping. 




Walston ** 


1937 


Housekeeping. 




Windber 


6000 


Housekeeping. 


14 girls in kindling fac- 






tory at Arrow. 





1 Approximate. 2 Now about 3000. 3 In Johnstown city limits. * Steel 
works here employing several thousand men. s Both now about 6000; five 
sixths foreigners. 6 Iron mill here employing 300 men. » Resident center for 
small mining towns near by. Adrian Furnace, 100 Slovaks; Du Bois Iron 
Works, 64 Germans and Scotch; Locomotive Works, 500 Germans, Scotch, and 
Irish; many Italians on railroads. 8 Approximate. 9 Business center for 
small mining towns; residential town for retired merchants and farmers. 
x0 Brass-fitting factories^ here employ a great many men. Ix Great steel works 
here, also minor industriesusing steel and iron. I2 Estimated to be4S,ooo now. 
*3 Factories here employing 1000. Business center for near-by mining towns. 
** Coke ovens here also. x s Clay works here employing 500. l6 About 4000 
now. x ? Lumbering and farming also employ the men here. Town a decadent 
one; lumbering nearly exhausted and coal mine almost worked out. l8 Business 
centers for small mining centers near. ^ Now estimated at 10,000. 20 Now 
about 2500. ai Now estimated at 800. 

I42 



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WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

SUMMARY 

The situation may be summed up in this way : In the 
coal fields there are, roughly speaking, three quarters of a 
million immigrants, — men, women, and children, — most 
of them of Slavic races, who have brought over to this 
country the manners and customs of a lower civilization, 
and who are living under conditions which tend to per- 
petuate their civilization instead of raising them to a 
higher level. They live by themselves, not mingling with 
Americans, and usually knowing them only as arrogant 
and unjust superiors. They live together as far as pos- 
sible, they work together in gangs, they go to their own 
churches where the service is in their own tongue, and 
they trade at stores where there are clerks of their own 
race. In spite of all this, the men do learn some Eng- 
lish in the course of a few years, but many women never 
learn any. The children are more likely to acquire it, but 
when they go to the parochial schools, as most of them 
do, they get only a smattering. The immigrants have 
practically no opportunity to learn anything of our history 
and traditions or about our standards of living and morality. 

In the better sections of the towns, quite apart from 
these immigrants, live the Americans and the immigrants 
of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic origin, holding the best posi- 
tions and frequently scorning the Slavs. The proportion 
between these two classes, of course, varies considerably, 
but probably in towns of more than 6000 it is usually 
from 50 to 75 per cent Slav and from 25 to 50 per cent 
American, German, English, Welsh, and Irish, while in 
the small patches not more than from 10 to 20 per cent 
would belong to the latter class. 

Betterment Work. — The agencies at work American- 

154 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 

izing these immigrants - are few and feeble. The only 
Protestant work at all systematized and extensive is that 
undertaken by the Presbyterian church and by the 
Young Men's Christian Association. The Presbyterians 
have a committee in the anthracite fields, and another 
in the bituminous region, in charge of the work among 
the foreign-speaking peoples, and these committees have 
established missionaries in nearly all of the larger towns, 
and they go out from these to the smaller places. Their 
work for the most part is professedly religious, consisting 
of holding services in the native language of the people 
and in the distribution of tracts, but some of the mis- 
sionaries also do a great deal of house-to-house visiting, 
protecting the people from injustice in one form or 
another, and teaching them their legal rights. They also 
have women who conduct sewing and cooking classes and 
visit in the homes, and nearly all the kindergartens in 
the coal fields are supported by the Presbyterians. In a 
few places Methodists, Episcopalians, and Baptists have 
missionaries. Aside from these, no other Protestant 
churches are working among the foreigners. 

There are various explanations as to the lack of Prot- 
estant activity. Among them must undoubtedly be put 
the indifference referred to above, but, in justice to the 
churches, other causes should be noted. One is that the 
efforts of the Presbyterian church seem to have met with 
small results compared with the money and energy ex- 
pended. This has deterred others. Those who have 
had charge of this work say they have met almost in- 
superable difficulties in finding the right men and women 
for the work. 1 In several cases missionaries have proved 

i The great difficulty, of course, is in getting suitable people who 
are at the same time familiar with the Slavic tongues. 

155 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

to be of bad character, and the priests are still mak- 
ing capital out of this. In cases where ex-Catholics 
were engaged the people looked upon them as rene- 
gades and would have nothing to do with them. All to- 
gether, the men on the committees in charge of the work 
feel that it is slow and shows small results. 

A second reason is to be found in the weakness of the 
Protestant churches all through the coal fields. The 
Protestant population consists of Anglo-Saxons, and they 
are moving out of these fields as the Slavs come in, so 
that the congregations are steadily diminishing through 
no fault of their own. 

The strongest reason of all, however, lies in the fact 
that practically all of these immigrants are Roman Catho- 
lics. There are a few who belong to the Orthodox Greek 
church and some who are Lutherans or Calvinists, but 
the great majority were brought up Catholics and fear 
and respect the priest at least enough to keep away from 
Protestant churches. The policy of the Roman Catholic 
church is to give the people priests of their own nation- 
ality as far as possible. The priests in the coal fields are, 
as a rule, foreign born and bred, and in many cases speak 
and understand English imperfectly. They know little of 
American ideas and ideals, and often they fear the liberty of 
thought and speech characteristic of the country be- 
cause they believe it breeds disloyalty to the church. 
They use their influence, therefore, to isolate their people. 
In some cases they urge them not to learn English. In 
all cases they forbid them to have any dealings with Protes- 
tant ministers or to enter classes that have any religious 
features. 

Their most permanent hold upon the people is probably 
gained through the parochial schools. In the bituminous 

156 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 

fields there are comparatively few of these, but in the an- 
thracite region they are numerous. Here, in many places, 
it is estimated that 90 per cent of the children attend 
them, which means that practically 90 per cent never get 
into the public schools and so have no real opportunity to 
become Americanized. It was difficult to get accurate 
information about the parochial schools because, unlike 
the public schools, they do not report to the local or state 
superintendent, but it appears that they 1 are inferior to 
the public schools both in buildings and instruction. 
They rarely do more than fulfil the law as regards the 
teaching of English, and in some cases their professed 
object is to keep the children speaking their native 
tongue. 

The Roman Catholic church is undoubtedly the strong- 
est power in the coal fields, and any agency that reaches 
the immigrants must deal with the church in one way or 
another. This fact alone should explain why the work 
of Protestant churches shows such meager results. The 
bolder spirits, the more restless or dissatisfied minds, can 
sometimes be touched, but not the rank and file, and the 
women least of all. The priests have repeatedly broken 
up kindergartens and classes when they heard that the 
Bible was read or a hymn sung in them, and they have no 
hesitation in denouncing from the pulpit either a school 
or an individual. 

For the same reasons the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation works under disadvantages, though not to so great 
a degree as do the churches. Occasionally a priest is on 
friendly terms with the secretary and encourages his people 
to make use of the association rooms, and to attend 
classes which have no religious features. In most cases 

1 Exceptions being the Irish and German parochial schools. 

iS7 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

he is openly hostile, while in a few cases he is passive but 
watchful to see that members of his flock do not slip away. 
The Young Men's Christian Association secretaries admit 
frankly that even they do not touch the great body of im- 
migrants, but they hope, by emphasizing their purely 
educational features, to widen their influence. 

The Roman Catholic church seems to confine itself 
largely to mere formal requirements. It has some 
benefit societies for men and women, and these soci- 
eties give dances and balls and, when the priest is so 
disposed, plays or entertainments. In some cases the 
priest organizes temperance societies, but this seems to 
be exceptional. 

It seldom appears that the priest sets forces at work to 
teach the people how to live better, to keep themselves 
and their houses clean, or that he makes any effort to im- 
prove the bad housing conditions and intemperance, both 
of which result in so much immorality. 

Before closing this chapter, the more obvious needs of 
the people in the Pennsylvania mining regions might be 
summed up under the following six heads : 

i. They need better houses at reasonable rents. 

2. They need public baths, either free or with a nom- 
inal charge, in every town and "patch" throughout the 
coal fields. Such baths, if sufficient in number, would do 
away with the kitchen bath, and would surely help toward 
better moral conditions. 

3. They need places of amusement to offset the influ- 
ence of the saloon. 

4. They need to mingle with Americans who are kindly 
disposed toward them ; the women in this way to have op- 
portunities to learn better methods of housekeeping, and 
caring for children and the sick. 

158 



WOMEN IN THE COAL FIELDS 

5. They need simple lectures or some other form of 
instruction in our laws, customs, and history. 

6. And, most important of all, they need to learn the 
English language. 

That is, in brief, they need a chance to become good 
Americans, and the withholding of this opportunity may 
eventually jeopardize the moral standards of a free people. 



159 



CHAPTER X 

Uplifting Forces 

No study of women workers can be complete without 
including in it some discussion of the betterment forces 
at work in their behalf. It is extremely rare to find a 
community entirely unmindful of the needs of this class 
of women, although there are some well-nigh lacking in 
social spirit. And we have yet to find the place where 
greater opportunities could not be extended advanta- 
geously. 

While the largest cities furnish the story of largest 
endeavor, they, at the same time, reveal the gravest need. 
Multitudes of girls never come in touch with movements 
undertaken for their benefit. Thousands have never heard 
of settlement classes, or trade unions, or working girls' 
clubs, and many more look suspicious when these are 
mentioned. But notwithstanding the truth of this, one 
of the most encouraging features of a study of indus- 
trial life is the evidence that so much is being done by 
interested bodies to offset the somewhat deadening influ- 
ences of toil as it exists to-day. 

The fact that so many different groups representing 
varying interests are awake to the needs of wage- earning 
women is one of the most hopeful signs of the times, and 
is an excellent indication of the spread of democratic 
principles. Under our present industrial organization, 
some groups bear an undue burden of the hardships of life, 
and inasmuch as this is largely the result of accident of 

1 60 



UPLIFTING FORCES 

birth or of training, it would seem that a truly democratic 
people would feel impelled to eliminate, wherever possi- 
ble, the element of unfairness from the struggle, and 
remove the handicaps for which society is responsible. 

A wider knowledge of general labor conditions as they 
exist would go far toward creating a more sympathetic 
cooperation on the part of the public, which alone is 
powerful to effect changes. People are learning, slowly 
it is true, that the welfare of all necessitates the welfare 
of each, and they are realizing more keenly than ever 
before that the ideal of national supremacy cannot be 
attained so long as millions of women are left to flounder 
in the misery and gloom of an industrial situation they 
cannot all understand, and even if they could understand, 
could not change unaided. 

The factory girl, the shop girl, the college girl, the 
woman in the home, the woman active in public welfare, 
and the woman in society, as well as all the men in the 
nation, should make common cause of race improvement, 
and no far-reaching improvement is possible while young 
girls are allowed to exhaust their physical energy and 
jeopardize their moral integrity in occupations where the 
remuneration practically precludes a normal standard of 
life. The college girl with her books, and the older 
woman with her. problems, must extend a helping hand 
to the girl and the woman whose lot is cast in factory or 
shop. They are all of the same clay and wonderfully 
alike, as those who have extended hands across the 
chasm have found. Favoring circumstances have given 
to one group more of the graces of life, but not more 
natural charm, nor greater human interest. Mutual ad- 
vantage and inspiration must come from cooperation on 
the part of these two divisions of womankind. It is not 
m 161 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

charity that is needed by the one, but a broader human 
sympathy, a sympathy that will protect the weaker from 
injustice. 

It will not be possible to enumerate here all the efforts 
for the improvement of industrial conditions found in the 
cities and towns covered by the investigation. The aim 
is rather to discuss the character of the largest move- 
ments only, and through these to present the scope of 
community interest in wage- earning women. This must 
not be construed as a disparagement of the small under- 
takings which are often of great social value. The young 
woman fresh from college who conducts a sewing class in 
her father's factory for ten girls, and the young matron 
who opens her home once a month to the girls in her 
husband's mill, are entitled to commendation, but their 
work is not a sufficiently important contribution to the 
large field of industrial amelioration to warrant its inclu- 
sion among the really significant forces. 

The uplifting agencies found in the places studied are, 
in the main, those familiar to all who keep in touch with 
social progress, but they are nevertheless of sufficient im- 
portance to bear further discussion and appreciation. 

Conspicuous among the forces leading to improve- 
ment is careful investigation of conditions that exist, 
and this may well be considered first. 

Investigation by Public and Private Agencies. — The 
study of industrial conditions with a view to changing 
them for the better, must be accorded a high place among 
betterment forces at work. Prominent among such 
studies are those undertaken from time to time by state 
and nation through their departments of labor. Many 
states have followed the lead of Massachusetts, and have 
given the public the benefit of their far-reaching inquiries. 

162 



UPLIFTING FORCES 

In addition to these, the reports of the factory inspectors 
frequently contain much that is instructive in regard 
to the labor of women under the jurisdiction of such 
inspectors. 

The federal investigation of the work of women and 
children, and the effect of industry upon them, recently 
completed, is the most extensive study of the kind ever 
carried on in this country, and the results are awaited with 
interest. No private organization could possibly under- 
take so extended a work, both on account of the difficulty 
of securing large funds, and on account of a lack of manda- 
tory power which the government possesses. It would 
seem highly desirable, then, that the federal government 
should make such investigation a regular part of its duty, 
thereby leaving private bodies free to establish lines of 
activity based on the information thus gained. Wider 
knowledge as to the effects of wage-earning upon women 
and the race is undoubtedly a social necessity. Girls are 
too valuable to be wantonly sacrificed before the Moloch 
of Industry. If their young lives or future usefulness are 
being jeopardized, society at large should know about it, 
and the proper authorities should take steps to avert the 
danger. Far-reaching studies, therefore, whether made 
by the government or by private organizations, must al- 
ways be the basis of enlightened betterment undertakings. 
The true story of industry must be told whether condi- 
tions be good, bad, or indifferent, notwithstanding the fact 
that persons high in political or social life may be in- 
volved. The pressure of public sentiment might lead 
such persons to have their establishments above reproach 
in the future. 

Among private organizations conducting investigations, 
and striving to establish a higher standard in industry, is 

163 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

the Consumers' League, with national 1 headquarters in 
New York City, and branches in various states. 

The work of the league is based on a recognition of 
the consumer's place in determining the conditions of pro- 
duction and distribution. The league sees clearly that, 
under the lash of competition, merchants frequently en- 
danger public health and public morals ; the former, by 
placing on the market ready-made clothing fresh from 
the sweater's den, and often foul with disease ; the latter, 
by subjecting saleswomen and children to undue hardships, 
not even mitigated by adequate wages. People generally 
are not accustomed to think of these dangers, or, if they do 
think of them occasionally, they are apt to dismiss such 
unpleasant thoughts from their minds as disturbing and 
useless. They know too well the futility of individual 
efforts. Such persons would not find their efforts futile 
if they cooperated with a league the aims and methods 
of which may be learned from the following statement 
issued by the Consumers' League of New York City : 

Aim. — Through public sentiment to improve industrial 
conditions for women and children by securing strict 
regulation of child labor, and a shorter working day for 
women employed in factories and stores. To obtain for 
all consumers pure food and garments made under sani- 
tary conditions. 

Method. — To urge the shopping public to give their 
custom to the fairest employers, thus making it commer- 
cially profitable for others to come up to the same standard. 

Closely allied with investigation, and often a direct re- 
sult of it, is the making of laws designed to lessen the 
hardships of the workers. 

1 The fact that Mrs. Florence Kelly directs the national work is suffi- 
cient indication of its great value. 

164 



LEGISLATION 



Prohibiting employment of women 
in : 

Mines, smelters, etc. . . 

Places where intoxicants 
are made or sold . . . 

Cleaning or operating dan- 
gerous machinery . . . 

Regulating working time of 
women : 

Hours of labor limited . . 

Night work prohibited or 

restricted 

Requiring for females in factories, 
etc.: 

Seats for rest 

Separate toilet facilities . 



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LEGISLATION 




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Prohibiting employment of women 

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Places where intoxicants 
are made or sold . . . 

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gerous machinery . . . 

Regulating working time of 

Hours of labor limited . . 

Night work prohibited or 

Requiring for females in factories, 
etc.: 

Seats for rest . • ■ ■ ■ 
Separate toilet facilities . 


X 
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earning Women 



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UPLIFTING FORCES 

Legislation. — As a result of agitation based, in most 
instances, on the exposure of specific cases of industrial 
injustice, many of the states have enacted laws for the 
protection of women. The states with recently developed 
manufacturing interest are allowing evils to pass un- 
noticed by law in the eagerness for commercial expansion. 
The same course was followed in the older states, until 
there came a revulsion of popular feeling, and thinking 
people insisted upon protecting wage-earning women from 
rapacious employers. 

The accompanying table is designed to show the legal 
protection afforded to women in industry. 1 

Following a consideration of the state's method of 
helping labor, may fittingly come a discussion of labor's 
own awakening. 

Trade Unions. — For about half a century trade or- 
ganizations have been striving by fair means and foul to 
get a voice in the conduct of business for the avowed 
purpose of improving their own condition. The ends for 
which they have striven are laudable. They have been 
calling for sanitary workshops and living wages, for shorter 
hours and greater certainty of employment, and all the 
time emphasizing their right to be heard. This movement 
is especially worthy of notice, because it is a movement by 
the wage-workers for the wage-workers. This, in theory 
at least, should be the most hopeful of all undertakings. 
These people have set up for themselves a definite stand- 
ard of living which they hope to attain when thoroughly 
organized in their trades. 

Whatever may. be said about the methods sometimes 
employed by trade unions, it must be admitted that their 

1 The Bulletins of Labor issued bimonthly in Washington, D.C., en- 
able one to keep in touch with the changes that come from time to time. 

165 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

theory of industrial betterment is sound. They are at- 
tempting to push themselves up against forces frequently 
conspiring to keep them down. This opposition has lent 
a strength and militant vigor to their purpose. Indus- 
trial betterment of this kind must tend to produce a virile 
body of citizens, and the test of any ameliorative work 
must, in the last analysis, be the effectiveness of the citi- 
zens it produces. 

Trade unionism has only recently seized the imagination 
of women. Its possibilities are just beginning to be real- 
ized by representative bodies of women, and by wage- 
earners themselves. 

Many women feel that their stay in the industrial world 
is temporary, and they are either indifferent to the condi- 
tions under which they must work for a time, or they are 
unwilling to submit to what they frequently regard as the 
tyranny of leaders, preferring rather to endure low wages 
and bad sanitation, if need be, till marriage sets them free. 
But the more intelligent women see the advantages of or- 
ganization, and are uniting with others of their trade for 
mutual benefit. 

Strong unions of women were found in New York and 
Chicago, and also in some of the smaller cities included 
in this investigation. Mere numbers alone do not tell 
the strength of unionism. In fact, it is extremely hard to 
get accurate information about membership, both on ac- 
count of poor bookkeeping, and fear lest known facts of 
membership will militate against individuals. 

This movement has received a great impetus during the 
last few years from the Woman's Trade Union League, a 
vigorous organization of trade unionists, and non-wage- 
earners in sympathy with the ideals of unionism. In ad- 
dition to the definite work of promoting organization, the 

166 



UPLIFTING FORCES 

league has accomplished much in the way of fostering a 
sentiment in favor of organized labor among those who 
have been heretofore antagonistic. There is a National * 
League which is doing aggressive work, and there are 
virile state leagues maintaining offices in New York, 
Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis. 

But the wage-earner is not alone in desiring better 
conditions. Many employers are giving much time, at- 
tention, and money in trying to bring about more pleas- 
ant relations with their employees, and the efforts of such 
men are worthy of consideration. 

Employers* Welfare Work. — Several hundred em- 
ployers in the United States are carrying on some kind 
of betterment work for their employees, while a dozen 
or more stand out prominently for their unusual, even 
notable, undertakings. In general, Welfare Work in- 
cludes : i. Improved physical conditions ; 2. Oppor- 
tunity for rest and recreation ; 3. Educational features ; 
and 4. Benefit funds. Each of these things is good in 
itself, as employees well know, but they often view the em- 
ployer's effort to bestow them with poorly masked suspi- 
cion. They enjoy social and recreational facilities, but 
their interest centers in higher wages, which will enable 
them to provide themselves with the good things of life. 

On the employer's side there is always the temptation 
to turn to business profit the improved conditions his 
generosity has made possible, and so his Welfare Work 
may degenerate into mere advertising, and his employees 
be exploited to their humiliation. 

But we must make a clear line of demarcation between 
the schemes of an enterprising publicity agent and genu- 

1 Mrs. Raymond Robins is president of the National League, and 
the headquarters are at 275 La Salle St., Chicago. 

167 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

ine, purposeful betterment activities. The value of Wel- 
fare Work must ever depend on the employer who 
undertakes it ; and when he is the means of rousing his 
employees to action, of encouraging them to evolve 
methods of self-improvement, and of stimulating them to 
an appreciation of the value of doing things for themselves, 
he has made a contribution to the solution of industrial 
difficulties. Labor and Capital working together for 
mutual advantage is undoubtedly the ideal relationship. 

We have found that wage-earning woman has evoked 
interest in her well-being in the ranks of labor, and 
among employers, as well as in state and nation, but these 
are not all. Each community furnishes its quota of ac- 
tivities which are directly, as well as indirectly, helping 
the girl who works to meet her difficult problems. The 
ones which we shall consider here may be classed as Un- 
dertakings of Interested Groups and Individuals, and 
these include Social Settlements, the Association of Work- 
ing Girls' Clubs, Housing efforts, and the Young Women's 
Christian Associations, which will now be considered in 
the foregoing order. 

Social Settlements. — It is hardly necessary to speak of 
the great educational and social work for young wage- 
earning women carried on in the large cities, and in some 
smaller ones, by the institutions known to the world 
through such inspired workers as Jane Addams and Mary 
McDowell in Chicago, and Lillian Wald and Mary Kings- 
bury Simkhovitch in New York. Settlements have come 
to be recognized as a force of permanent value wherever 
they exist. In one New England town the sole meeting 
place for mill girls was the little settlement house, and the 
girls who found their way there felt repaid for the effort 
it cost after a long, weary day at their machines. 

168 



UPLIFTING FORCES 

The settlements in New York and Chicago have been 
at the forefront in urging a careful study of working con- 
ditions, as well as in directing certain specific studies 
from time to time. It is well understood that settlement 
leaders successfully urged upon Congress the necessity 
for its recent investigation of the work of women and 
children, — the investigation referred to earlier in this 
chapter. In other ways, too, they contribute to the lives 
of working girls. They make possible social meetings, 
educational classes, and summer outings that would other- 
wise be impossible for thousands of young women in the 
great cities. 

The Association of Working Girls' Clubs. — The name 
of Grace H. Dodge must ever be associated with clubs 
for working girls, for out of her work in New York City, 
more than twenty years ago, has grown an organization 
that bids fair to become nation wide in its scope. While 
the Association of Working Girls' Clubs is at present con- 
fined to the Eastern states, the same type of club is found 
all over the country. Miss Dodge's own definition of 
such a club is, "an organization formed among busy 
women and busy girls to secure by cooperation means 
of self-support, opportunities for social intercourse, and 
the development of higher and nobler aims." In these 
clubs women of different social grades meet on a com- 
mon footing and are mutually helpful. 

In 1885 a dozen clubs with a membership of several 
hundred united under the name of the New York Associ- 
ation of Working Girls' Societies, and this, after some 
years, was absorbed by an Interstate League embracing 
five state associations with affiliated clubs in other states, 
and having a membership of some thousands. The ac- 
tivities of this organization in New York typify all, and 

169 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

will serve to show the scope of their undertakings. One 
of the most important features is a mutual benefit fund in 
which girls are insured against sickness or death at a rate 
of twenty-five or forty cents a month. This carries with 
it, also, certain hospital privileges. Then there are sum- 
mer homes where girls may enjoy a vacation for $4 a 
week. This does not place summer outings within the 
reach of the most poorly paid workers, but there are 
many others to whom this rate is a boon. 

For these and other reasons the association deserves to 
succeed. It is an ameliorative force of much importance. 

It is but a step in thought from the club for social and 
inspirational purposes to the residential club, where girls 
may live amid good surroundings for a reasonable rate. 
This brings us to a consideration of attempts to house- 
working women. 

Housing of Wage-earning Women. — In many of the in- 
dustrial centers where our investigation carried us, we 
found "homes," hotels, or clubs maintained, by philan- 
thropically disposed persons, for girls on a low wage. 
The Young Women's Christian Association is a pioneer 
in this direction, and its boarding homes may be found 
in every city of considerable size in the United States. 
Other organizations and individuals have undertaken 
similar work, until now the cry is raised in some quarters 
that such institutions are a menace to the girls who are 
fighting for a higher wage. Undoubtedly they would be 
undesirable if they made wage- earners objects of charity, 
but when they represent an honest effort to supply a 
pleasant home at a low rate to young girls away from the 
restraining influence of their parents, and when the cost 
of accommodation is actually paid for, there should be no 
objections raised. 

170 



UPLIFTING FORCES 

It is extremely difficult for young women to find satis- 
factory boarding places in great cities, and much of the 
annual moral wreckage can be traced to the forlorn isola- 
tion of the hall bedroom. So it would seem that coopera- 
tive, self-supporting, self-governing, residential clubs could 
fill an urgent need, particularly among girls who are young, 
inexperienced, and poorly paid. There are a number of 
such homes in existence, and their work is deserving of 
commendation. The Eleanor Clubs 1 of Chicago may be 
cited as an illustration, because they have passed the ex- 
perimental stage, as the initial club represents twelve 
years of successful achievement. There are now five 
clubs in different parts of the city, accommodating in all 
about 350 guests at a rate of from $2.75 to $4.50 a week. 
The plan of organization is to equip a house large enough 
for at least sixty guests, and to put this in charge of a 
broad-minded superintendent, and the necessary house- 
keeping and clerical assistants. A fund of a few hundred 
dollars is then advanced to meet the exigencies of the 
first month or two, and the house is ready for occupancy. 
Each club has attractive parlors for the use of residents and 
their friends, and a library and reading-room for the free 
use of all. Laundry privileges are provided at a nominal 
charge, and sewing-machines are furnished for general use. 

The income from guests covers all the expenses of the 
clubs, including interest on the sum spent for furnishings, 
and advanced in each case by the president of the or- 
ganization operating the clubs. This interest is turned 
over to a fund for the benefit of sick or needy girls. 
The secret of the financial success of the clubs is expert 
business administration. 

1 Operated by the Eleanor Association, 40 Randolph St., Chicago, 
Miss Ina Law Robertson, President. 

171 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

There are many educational, social, and recreational 
features connected with the clubs, and a summer camp 
admirably planned, constructed, and managed is main- 
tained at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. A long waiting list 
testifies to the popularity of the Eleanor Clubs among the 
girls who work in various occupations in Chicago. 

In all such undertakings some one must be found to 
carry the burdens of organization and administration, 
since busy young girls have neither the time nor ex- 
perience, and seldom the requisite initiative. Working 
women coming together in such groups have unusual 
opportunities for self-improvement, and for developing a 
much-needed esprit de corps. 

The last specific work which remains to be considered 
among the uplifting forces in communities where young 
women are following industrial careers is — 

The Young Women's Christian Association. — For over 
a generation this organization has been trying to meet 
the needs of working girls all over the country. To this 
end, it has erected hundreds of thousands of dollars' 
worth of buildings where classes are conducted for a 
small fee, and clubs of various kinds meet, and social 
gatherings are held. Besides this, the association carries 
on work in over four hundred factories throughout the 
country. It maintains lunch and rest rooms in these 
establishments, and strives to make the noon hour and 
other free time pleasant. The many interesting enter- 
tainments are managed by committees of the girls in 
cooperation with the industrial secretary of the associa- 
tion. So valuable do employers regard this work that 
they support it generously. 

In addition to the foregoing activities the associations 
maintain employment bureaus and, last year, found em- 

172 



UPLIFTING FORCES 

ployment for over twenty thousand girls. The Brooklyn 
Young Women's Christian Association furnishes an ex- 
cellent example of what a model employment bureau 
can do in a community. This department is in the 
hands of well-trained women who, through a masterly 
system of cooperation with various city institutions, keep 
in touch with worthy girls and women in need of work. 
But the association is not content merely to fill places ; 
it carries on an elaborate system of investigation, so that 
the bureau may know the character of the establishments, 
as well as the requirements of the positions. This work 
has developed along the lines of the Alliance Employ- 
ment Bureau in New York, and the Women's Educational 
and Industrial Union in Boston, both of which organiza- 
tions are doing notable work in investigation as well as 
in finding positions for girls. 

The Brooklyn Association maintains in addition to 
many other activities a well-equipped night school where 
girls may learn anything from millinery to English literature. 
Besides a religious service on Sunday afternoon, there is a 
flourishing Social Problems Club, where, under the leader- 
ship of prominent speakers, young working women discuss 
questions relating to industry and social organization. 
This is the story of one prosperous association, but 
similar stories could be told of scores of others all over 
the land. 

At first glance one might suppose that such an array 
of nation-wide undertakings as has been presented, when 
added to countless local efforts, would reach every woman 
working for a daily wage. But, as a matter of fact, thou- 
sands of girls never come in contact with any uplifting 
agency. They know the nickel theaters, and the dance 
halls, and the glare of the streets, but they know nothing 

173 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

of the pleasant entertainments open to them in places 
entirely safe in character. During our investigation we 
found many girls in Chicago who had never heard of the 
public library; girls in New York who looked bewildered 
when told about social settlements; and girls in New 
England towns who did not know that there were places 
where they could have a good time and remain decent. 

There is undoubtedly need for concerted action. All 
organizations should work together to extend their benefits, 
and to eliminate wasteful duplication of effort. In the 
extension of opportunity to wage-earning women, there 
is work for all. Trained students of society, practical 
social workers, and all good citizens should cooperate 
in aggressive action to make our democracy more of a 
reality in the industrial world. 



174 



CHAPTER XI 

Suggestions for Improvement 

One cannot tarry long with young working women 
without feeling the great lack of opportunity in too many 
of their lives. Their very youth is often a handicap. 
They were drawn into industry before they learned 
how to do anything well, and they have rushed along, 
sometimes in a daring, sometimes in a hopeless, fashion, 
now acquiring skill and again dropping below medioc- 
rity or never rising above gross incompetency. These 
young creatures have but little choice of occupation. 
They drift inevitably into the shop or into the factory, 
according to local circumstances. The department store 
lures schoolgirls into its maw because of its many surface 
attractions, and they frequently fare worse than those who 
earn their daily bread making boxes or clothes or work- 
ing with the dirty textiles. 

So many doors stand invitingly open to the unskilled 
that it does not occur to girls that they could do much 
better if they only knew how to do some one thing even 
fairly well. Experiments in the Manhattan Trade School, 
for example, have proved, beyond a doubt, the great value 
of trade training to the young girl who must work. Her 
parents are the gainers in the end, since her skill enables 
her to get a much higher wage at the start than she could 
otherwise obtain. It is true that such opportunity for 
trade instruction is not possible for all, and yet it does 
not seem too much to hope that the not distant future 

*75 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

will see the public schools supplying in a measure this 
type of training. 

If woman is to work in the industrial world, then it be- 
hooves society to make her an efficient worker. Too 
many wage-earners to-day are inefficient. Every one 
knows how difficult it is to get anything done in a satis- 
factory manner, whether it be plumbing or making 
clothes. One of the great needs, then, is a higher stand- 
ard of efficiency for all types of work. 

The expectation of a rather short working life on the 
part of most girls is thought to account for their luke- 
warm interest in acquiring great skill along any line. Yet 
it seems that interest might be stimulated by the right 
type of training in the schools before the wage-earning 
age is reached. This is something to aim at. In the 
meantime, other organizations might well extend oppor- 
tunities of which girls could avail themselves outside of 
working hours, where this could be done without injury 
to health. 1 While we deplore the lack of efficiency in 
many women workers, we must not overlook the fact that 
others have attained a high grade of skill for which they 
are not adequately compensated. The employer, when 
he is approached for higher wages, may charge the girl 
with incompetency, and some will support his contention 
that he pays her more than she is worth. This is falla- 
cious. If it were true, he would not continue to employ 
her on such terms. 

Unquestionably, the most serious problems that the 
young girl at work has to face are low wages and the 
constant jeopardizing of her health by the occupation in 
which she engages. Where wages are concerned, all 

1 The Young Women's Christian Association does this systematically 
in 190 cities and towns in the United States. 

176 



SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT 

averages are deceptive and need to be interpreted in terms 
of actual time employed during fifty-two weeks in any 
year. It is the exceptional wage-earning woman who has 
uninterrupted employment. And this does not mean the 
worker of exceptional ability, but rather the one of unusual 
good fortune. Employers are too ready to say that inter- 
mittent employment does not work hardship for their par- 
ticular employees, inasmuch as they all live at home and 
welcome occasional vacations. While it is true that 1304 
of the 1476 interviewed in New York, and 1618 of the 
19 14 in Chicago, lived at home, it is equally true that only 
58 in the first group and 75 in the second appeared to 
have their earnings for personal use; that is, paid nothing 
for board and lodging. The vicious and unsupported 
theory that girls flock to the factories and stores for " pin 
money " seems even yet to have a firm hold in the 
employer's mind. The necessity for self-support becomes 
the dominant force in driving the young girl out to seek 
employment, and in compelling her to keep her place once 
she has obtained it. 

The nerve-racking intensity of work in a modern factory 
makes a day's labor no pleasing pastime. It robs the girl 
of her vitality ; it steals her youth ; it breaks her health ; 
and too often it blunts her moral sense. It would seem 
that factory work must be accommodated to the girl or 
the girl taken out of the factory. The prime function of 
woman in society is not " speeding up " on a machine ; it 
is not turning out so many dozen gross of buttons or cans 
in a day ; it is not making the heaviest sale of notions, or 
tending the greatest number of looms ; it is not breaking 
records in packing prunes or picking hops ; nor yet 
is it outdoing all others in vamping shoes or spooling 
cotton. 

n 177 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

The prime function of woman must ever be the perpetu- 
ating of the race. If these other activities render her 
physically or morally unfit for the discharge of this larger 
social duty, then woe to the generations that not only per- 
mit but encourage such wanton prostitution of function. 
The woman is worth more to society in dollars and cents 
as the mother of healthy children than as the swiftest la- 
beler of cans. Yet our present industrial practice would 
indicate a preponderance of value in the latter. Five 
years of factory work may, and frequently do, render a 
a girl of twenty-one nearly or quite a physical wreck, so 
far as normal functioning is concerned. She may live 
thirty or forty years, she may even continue as a wage- 
earner, but at what a cost ! 

It would appear from this that the plain duty of society 
is to have a care for its ever increasing throng of working 
girls. They must be protected. Desirable legislation 
should be sought and obtained, and, moreover, main- 
tained, regardless of constitutional quibble. A shorter 
working day and a higher wage should be advocated, and 
all types of organizations working for industrial betterment 
should cooperate in the effort to make America's wage- 
earning young women fit daughters of the country's noblest 
traditions and fit mothers of her future sons. 

This is the task. 

As has been emphasized here before, much excellent 
work for the betterment of laboring and living conditions 
of wage-earning women is now being done, but the equip- 
ment does not begin to equal the needs. Increased effort 
and ingenuity devoted to securing desirable changes would 
undoubtedly bring a rich reward in the resulting industrial, 
social, and spiritual uplift of the people. 

To recapitulate and reenforce our belief, we present the 

i 7 8 



SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT 

following suggestions toward advancement in which all 
betterment bodies could unite : 

i. Improved and uniform legislation in the different 
states. 

2. Disinterested cooperation with employers to secure 
better conditions. 

3. The promotion of greater efficiency on the part of 
employees by all practical means. 

4. Reduction of the number of hours in the working 
day and a higher rate of payment for labor. 

5. The establishment of residential clubs or hotels on 
a self-supporting basis for girls away from home. Even 
with a good wage it is frequently hard for the young girl 
to find a suitable abiding-place. 

6. Closer cooperation between existing organizations 
for industrial betterment. 

7. New organizations to be encouraged only where 
special needs must be met. Existing movements to be 
strengthened wherever their usefulness has been demons- 
trated. Such an attitude would be economically and ethi- 
cally sound. 

8. Far-reaching studies in regard to the specific effect 
of different occupations on health. This is the great need 
in every industrial center. 

And last, but extremely important, 

9 . A change in the character of recreational opportunities 
now available. In no community do wholesome recreational 
facilities have a higher functional value than in industrial 
towns. The fatigue and the monotony of long hours 
of toil make necessary, for the few hours of leisure, 
forms of activity which will bring refreshment by offer- 
ing new interest and variety. The working girl does 
not need merely to be amused, she needs to be stimu- 

179 



WAGE-EARNING WOMEN 

lated by an interest stronger than any her work can hold 
for her. 

Constructive work along these lines would do much to 
offset the devitalizing tendencies of modern industry. We 
ask all this that the young girl in the shop and at the ma- 
chine " may have life and have it more abundantly." 



1 80 



APPENDICES, BIBLIOGRAPHY 
AND INDEX 



APPENDIX I 

LIST OF INVESTIGATORS 

New England: 

Clawson, Edith, A.B. 

Hewes, Amy, Ph.D. 

Merrill, Flora A., A.B. 

Rhoades, Mabel C, Ph.D. 
New York City and New Jersey: 

Beavers, Genevieve W., A.B. 

Casamajor, Alice, MA. 

Conyngton, Mary K., M.A. 

Manning, Caroline, M.A. 

Mead, Belle, A.M. 

Packard, Charlotte M., Mus. B. 

Stecker, Margaret L., A.B. 

Stephens, Ada M., A.B. 

Welles, Julia T., A.B. 

Wynbladh, Sigrid, A.B. 
Pennsylvania: 

Foote, Alice E., A.B. 

Tanner, Amy E., Ph.D. 
Middle West, including Chicago: 

Abbott, Bonnie E., A.B. 

Burton, Margaret E., A.B. 

Kringel, Mary L., A.M. 

Lyman, Grace, Ph.B. 

MacLean, Mildred, A.M. 

Miller, Helen D., Ph.B. 

Phelps, Clara L., A.B. 

Stewart, Zelda E., 

Terry, Edith B., A.B. 
Far West: 

Eaves, Ruth, A.B. 

Evans, Helen, B.L. 

Gray, Jean, A.B. 

Spadoni, Adrienne, B.L. 

183 



APPENDIX II 

SCHEDULES 
SCHEDULE I — FOR EMPLOYERS 

FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE 

Acting under the auspices of the National Board of Y.W.C.A.'s 

Confidential Information 

Name Location 

Industry. 



Number employed .Number of women employed. 

Betterment work conducted 



Attitude toward betterment work on a Christian basis 



Remarks 



184 



APPENDIX II 

SCHEDULE II — FOR TOWN OR CITY 

FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE 
Acting under the auspices of the National Board of Y.W.C.A.'s 

Name Population 

Chief industries. 



Number of establishments employing women. 

Number of women employed 

Nationalities 



Local efforts in behalf of these women. 



Comments 



185 



APPENDIX II 

SCHEDULE III — FOR MINING REGIONS 

FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE 

Acting under the auspices of the National Board of Y.W.C.A.'s 

Name of place Population 

Special industry 

Number employed Women 

Nationalities 

Other women in community : occupations 

Nationalities 

Housing conditions 

Social life 



Amusements 

Clubs or centers for women.. 



Church undertakings in behalf of women. 



Remarks. 



186 



APPENDIX II 

SCHEDULE IV — HOMES FOR WORKING WOMEN 

FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE 

Acting under the auspices of the National Board of Y.W.CA.'s 

City Population 

Women employed Number not living at home 

Name of home 

Street and number. 

Number accommodated Age limit 

Wage limit 

Cost per week 

Under auspices of 



Regulations. 



Self-supporting. 
Comments 



187 



APPENDIX II 

SCHEDULE V 

Information Concerning Individuals (Confidential) 

FOR THE SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE 

Acting under the auspices of the National Board of Y.W.C.A.'s 

Name (or initials) Nationality Age__. 

Marital condition Born in city or country 

Reason for coming to city 

Attitude toward returning to country 

Industry 

Establishment Address 

Form of employment 

How long employed Average wage Dependents 

General conditions of establishment : Light Air Height (in stories). 

Elevators Regulations as to use 

Lunch room for women. __ .Dressing rooms 

Separate toilets Seats provided Length of day. 

Overtime Payment for overtime Fines imposed 

Mutual Benefit Association .Weekly dues 

Benefits in sickness Burial or death benefits 

Housing conditions : Living at home Cost per week 

Boarding house Cost per week 

Lodging house Cost per week Cost of meals per week 

Opportunities for social life: At home 

Boarding house Lodging house Clubs 

Opportunities for study : Classes or lectures Subject preferred 

Club work Libraries 

Recreation : Theater .Other forms of amusement 

Favorite form Sum per week spent for amusement 

Vacation _With or without pay How long 

Where spent Cost Chief pleasure 

Church attendance Sundays .Week days 

188 



APPENDIX III 

Four tables of statistics 1 relative to women wage-earners 
in the United States. 

Table I. 

Comparative statement in regard to women wage-earners 
in the United States in the three decades from 1880 to 1900. 

Table II. 
Race and nativity of female breadwinners in 1900. 

Table III. 

Women in gainful occupations classified by states and terri- 
tories for 1900. 

Table IV. 

Female breadwinners, classified according to occupation, 
race, nativity, and per cent of distribution. 

Table I 





Females 16 Years of Age and Over 


CENSUS 


Total 


Breadwinners 




Number 


Per cent 


Continental U.S. 
1900 
1890 
1880 


23485,559 
18,957,672 

14,752,258 


4,833,630 

3,596,615 
2,353,988 


20.6 
I9.O 
16.O 



1 Census of 1900. 
189 



i 



APPENDIX III 



Table II 





Females 16 Years of Age and Over 


RACE AND NATIVITY 


Total 


Breadwinners 




Number 


Per cent 


All classes 

Native white: both pa- 
rents native 

Native white: one or 
both parents foreign 
born 

Foreign-born white 

Negro 

Indian and Mongolian 


23,482,559 
12,130,161 

4,288,969 

4,403,494 

2,589,988 

72,947 


4,833,630 
1,771,966 

1,090,744 

840,011 

1,119,621 

11,288 


20.6 
I4.6 

25-4 
19.1 

43-2 

15-5 



190 



STATE 



For Continental United State: 

Maine 

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

District of Columbia 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 

Minnesota 

Iowa 

Missouri 

North Dakota 

South Dakota 

Nebraska 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Arkansas 

Indian Territory 

Oklahoma 

Texas 

Montana 

Idaho 

Wyoming 

Colorado _ 

New Mexico 

Arizona 

Utah 

Nevada 

Washington 

Oregon 

California 









, 








Gj 


•d « 




c/T 


O u 


<U fl 




CD en 


*S * J 


bfl O 


a 


-i-> »H 


CO « 


enga 

in 
upati 


352 

£ CD 
•— 1 l-l 

3 


5 a> 

Pl, S3 
- > 


Ps S 


Women 
All Occ 


Agric 
Lab 




_ 

en £ 
CD C 

en ^ 
in 

< 


4,833,630 


456,405 


307,706 


6,661 


49,9i7 


123 


2,963 


19 


39,807 


69 


1,469 


20 


21,852 


112 


1,336 


3 


317,558 


207 


1,595 


348 


48,203 


74 


190 


36 


83,898 


121 


1,375 


52 


635,319 


1,269 


10,512 


2,817 


142,718 


365 


1,283 


142 


395,656 


871 


9,296 


265 


11,894 


107 


316 


7 


91,097 


899 


2,250 


81 


40,382 


4 


9 


32 


114,438 


7,856 


12,164 


57 


28,680 


398 


4,831 


13 


127,740 


38,001 


16,074 


7 


142,433 


71,865 


13,545 


2 


182,037 


59,744 


14,308 


32 


33,459 


6,953 


3,160 


19 


233,177 


1,087 


13,169 


237 


111,024 


659 


8,894 


85 


275,105 


1,312 


10,159 


716 


126,517 


742 


7,801 


121 


io5,474 


1,137 


6,815 


62 


90,887 


852 


5,402 


183 


102*037 


884 


6,846 


74 


145,498 


1,247 


13,862 


153 


13,073 


273 


1,312 


3 


14,425 


325 


1,468 


10 


44,121 


562 


3,245 


105 


53,335 


556 


5,682 


28 


98,181 


2,350 


13,680 


45 


103,553 


12,133 


14,447 


35 


158,345 


73,738 


20,428 


12 


144,254 


77,393 


20,138 


4 


109,484 


42,553 


8,654 


14 


62,532 


20,963 


13,194 


8 


10,020 


1,600 


2,339 





9,708 


420 


2,685 


13 


122,425 


25,029 


19,330 


102 


9,539 


27 


452 


43 


4,375 


42 


621 


17 


2,893 


13 


168 


3 


27,369 


89 


904 


122 


5,766 


88 


488 


1 


6,162 


137 


1,420 


n 


io,334 


64 


875 


12 


1,969 


29 


90 


1 


20,20?, 


532 


1,286 


139 


I7,9l6 


109 


1 ,309 


39 


85,790 


422 


3,866 


3ii 



a o 

en 

< 



0,907 


5,984 


121 


115 


73 


87 


48 


60 


887 


850 


93 


51 


168 


171 


1,946 


1,038 


344 


176 


889 


498 


17 


8 


149 


87 


146 


78 


85 


38 


57 


13 


49 


13 


3i 


13 


105 


38 


48 


17 


704 


364 


225 


148 


1,010 


539 


386 


199 


181 


165 


226 


118 


276 


147 


357 


152 


14 


7 


19 


14 


112 


83 


160 


69 


134 


50 


157 


35 


85 


20 


52 


13 


33 


16 


54 


13 


19 


2 


20 


7 


231 


35 


18 


12 


13 


3 


5 


2 


167 
6 


43 


5 


4 


34 


7 


3 


3 


112 


25 


94 


24 


706 


166 



Table IV -Female Breadwinners, l6 Years oe Age and over, classified according to Occupation, Race, and Nativity, and Percent oe Distribution 



OCCUPATION 



All occupations 

Agricultural pursuits 
Agricultural laborers 
Farmers, planters, and 
Other agricultural pursuits 

Professional service 

Actresses, professional sho- 
Artists and teachers of art 



Musicians and teachers of music 

Officials (Government) 

Physicians and surgeons 

Teachers and professors in colleges, etc. 

Other professional service 
Domestic and personal service 

Barbers and hairdressers 

Boarding and lodging-house keepers 

Hotel keepers 

Housekeepers and stewardesses 

Janitors and sextons 

Laborers (not specified) 

Laundresses 

Nurses and midwives 

Servants and waitresses 

Other domestic and personal service 
Trade and transportation 

Agents 

Bookkeepers and accountants 

Clerks and copyists 

Merchants and dealers (retail) 

Packers and shippers 

Stenographers and typewriters 
Telegraph and telephone operators 
Others in trade and transportation 
Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 
Bookbinders 

Boot and shoemakers, and repairers 
Boxmakers (paper) 
Confectioners 
Glovemakers 
Gold and silver workers 
Paper and pulp mill operatives 
Printers, lithographers, presswomen 
Rubber factory operatives 
Textile-mill operatives 

Carpet factory operatives 

Cotton-mill operatives 

Hosiery and knitting mill operatives 

Silk-mill operatives 

Woolen-mill operatives 

Other textile-mill operatives 
Textile workers 

Dressmakers 



Seamstresses 

Shirt, collar, and cuff makers 

Tailoresses 

Other textile workers 
Tobacco and cigar factory operatives 
Other m'f'g and mechanical pursuits 



456,405 

307,706 

5,944 



327.20" 
11,223 
,953,407 
5,440 
59,455 
8,533 

740,l|Jl) 



328,035 

IO.VlQI 

,165,561 

14,997 
481,159 

io, 4 6S 
72,896 
81,000 
33,825 
17,052 
142,205 



i6,5S7 
199,452 
14,303 

3". 4"0 



26,432 
27,169 
44,051 

6/5,255 

338,144 
7,049 
82,936 

138,724 
27,788 
6i,57i 
19,043 
37,i2S 

'38,574 



.1 U'.imi >: 

< 1, 1 , |.\u..v 



204,1,311 

82,565 

179.44- 

2,626 



7,584 

4.435 
34,138 

6,127 

4.8S2 
207,823 

6,717 
535,156 

1,670 
31,756 

5,040 
77,912 

1,348 
21,639 
41,643 
43,764 



4,487 
14,720 
4,620 
2,315 
3,969 
1,007 
2,558 
8,453 



12,333 
8,571 
6,803 
9,667 

205,004 
152,821 



2 5.; 03 
6,236 

18,003 



3-',099 
8,218 
8,309 

64,857 

33,688 
8,601 
4,899 
432,80.8 
8,207 

16,500 
7,793 
3,528 
2,138 
3,029 
3,899 
5,703 
3,507 

77,52i 



34.075 
i,3S6 
25,827 



14,305 
1,807 

30,331 
3,889 



6,194 
7,368 

14,254 



14,038 
122,847 
55,523 

1,569 

8,829 
25,050 

4,598 
23,447 

3,831 



50 

13,478 

307 

634,083 

91 

3.S76 



1 Less than one-tenth ( 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The limitations of this bibliography are obvious. The 
attempt is simply to suggest some magazine articles, 1 grouped 
according to subject-matter, with an indication of contents 
in order that any phase of the subject may readily be studied, 
even by those not familiar with the general field. 

In addition to this, there is included a short list of books 
presenting the varied problems of women who work. It is 
assumed that students of industrial conditions can readily 
add to this list. 

BOOKS 

Abbott. " Women in Industry." 

Adams and Sumner. " Labor Problems." 

Butler. " Women and the Trades." 

Cadbury, Matheson, and Shann. " Women's Work and 

Wages." 
Ely. " Labor Movement in America." 
Mitchell. ' ' Organized Labor. ' ' 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

General. — "The Working Women of To-day," by Helen 
Campbell, the Arena, 4 : 329. Mentions briefly the 
changes which have taken place in method and kind of 
women's work, and gives a brief resume of the findings 
of the Commissioner of Labor for 1888. 
"The Conditions of Wage-earning Women," by Clare de 
GrafTenried, the Forum, 15 : 68. 

1 Between the years 1890 and 1907. 
101 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

"The Truth about Women in Industry," by Flora Mc- 
Donald Thompson, the North American Review, 178 : 
751. Woman is not a success in industry. 

"More Truth about Women in Industry," by Elizabeth 
Carpenter, the North American Review, 17 g : 215. A 
refutation of above article. 

"Are Women Business Failures?" by Edith Abbott, 
Harper's Weekly, 4Q : 496. An answer to Mrs. Thomp- 
son's two main contentions. 

"Women at Work in the United States," a review, the 
Scientific American Supplement, 63 : 26254. A review of 
report of Census Bureau just issued under direction of 
Dr. Joseph A. Hill from schedules of 12th Census 
(1907). 

"Women Who Work and Women Who Spend," by Maud 
Nathan, the Annals of the American Academy, 27 : 646. 
A general article giving ways by which women who 
spend may alleviate conditions of women who work. 

"The Condition of Working Women, from the Working 
Woman's Viewpoint," by Rose Phelps-Stokes, the 
Annals of the American Academy, 27 : 627. A general 
article giving working girls' attitude toward non-work- 
ers and would-be helpers. 

"The Difficulties and Dangers confronting the Working 
Woman," by Dorothy Richardson, the Annals of the 
American Academy, 27 : 624. Fundamental difficulty 
with the working woman is her inability for sustained 
effort. 

"Women Factory Workers," by M. E. J. Kelley, the Out- 
look, 58 : 269. Only successful means of elevating fac- 
tory worker, namely by means of a female Felix Holt. 

"One Woman's Struggle," by H. W. B., the Outlook, 72: 
693. Injustice for an unskilled woman worker. Of 
general character, good campaign material. 

"A Widow's Autobiography," the Independent, 58:72. 

192 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The story- of a tailoress, and the mental changes and 
changes in taste accompanying change in condition. 
Historical View. — "Women Wage-earners: Their Past, 
Their Present, and Their Future/' by Helen Campbell, 

■ in six parts. The Arena. 

Part I: vol. 7 ; 153. Short review of woman's labor in 
past. 

Part II: 7 : 321. Rise and growth of trades up to pres- 
ent time, and labor bureaus and their work in relation 
to women. 

Part III: 7 : 453. Present wage rates in the United 
States. 

Part IV: 7 : 668. General conditions for English con- 
tinental workers and for those in the United States. 

Part V: 8 : 32. General conditions in the western states. 

Part VI: 8: 172. Specific evils and abuses in factory 
life, remedies, and suggestions. 

"Woman's Place in Industry and Labor Organizations," 
by Sophie Yudelson, the Annals of the American Acad- 
emy, 24 : 343. Historical position of women, present 
industrial activity, wages, and labor organizations. 

"The History of Industrial Employment of Women in 
the United States: an Introductory Study," by Edith 
Abbott, the Journal of Political Economy, 14:461. 
This article discusses at length: 

1. The industrial employment of women in the 

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

2. Statistics of the employment of women in manu- 

facturing and mechanical pursuits from 1800 to 
1900. 

3. The early attitude toward women in industry. 
It is particularly full in references. 

"Women in Manufactures: a Criticism," by I. M. Rubi- 
now, the Journal of Political Economy, 15 : 41. A 
criticism of above article, 
o 193 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

"Harriet Martineau and the Employment of Women in 
1836," by Edith Abbott, the Journal of Political Econ- 
omy, 14 : 614. An account of woman's employment 
in America before i860. 

"Employment of Women in Industries, 12th Census 
Statistics," by Edith Abbott and Sophonosbia Breckin- 
ridge, the Journal of Political Economy , 14 : 14. Paper 
deals with numbers only: 1, the relations of the number 
of women gainfully employed in 1900 to 1890; 2, num- 
bers in which women are going into occupations, and 
extent of competition with men. 
Wages. — "Women's Wages in Manual Work," by M. B. 
Hammond, the Political Science Quarterly, 15 : 
508. Detailed study from nth Annual Report of 
Commissioner of Labor, on work and wages of 
men, women, and children, giving comparison of 
women's wages with men's, and conclusions. A 
scholarly work. 

"Woman and the Wages Question," by Samuel M. Davis, 
the American Journal of Politics, 4: 63. Reasons 
why women's wages are low. 

"Why Women are paid less than Men," by Carroll D. 
Wright, the Forum, 13 : 629. Reasons women are 
paid less than men, and prospect of women's work 
on future of race. 

" Shop-girls and Their Wages," by J. H. Hyslop, the An- 
dover Review, 16 : 455. A treatment of the problem of 
inadequate wages from standpoint of amelioration and 
from fundamental causes. 
Lodgings. — "Homes for Working Women in Large Cities," 
by Annie Marion MacLean, the Charities Review, g : 215. 
Brief account of homes in several cities. 

"Girls' Cooperative Boarding Houses," by Robert Stein, 
the Arena, ig : 397. A list of fifty homes in United 
States with cost, capacity, self-support given, and 

194 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

picture of ideal institution drawn. Material not up-to- 
date, valuable as far as it goes. 

"Housing for Single Women," by Harriet Fayes, Municipal 
Affairs, 3 : 95. Needs of wage-earners on $40 to $50 
a month, answer to objections, what is needed, and some 
successful experiments. 

"Do Working Women want a Hotel," Public Opinion, 
26 : 78. Advantages and disadvantages. 
Hours of Work. — "The Hours of Work of Women and 
Children," by Florence Kelley, the Chautauquan, 26 : 
430. Hours of work in Illinois. 

"Working Hours of Women in Factories," by Mary Van 
Kleeck, Charities and the Commons, ij : 13. The long 
day in New York and legislation on the subject. 
Physical Aspect. — "The Physical Cost of Women's 
Work," by A. Jacobi, M.D., Charities and the Commons, 
1 j .'839. Some diseases suffered and contracted in 
women's work under certain conditions. 
Employment in Certain Trades. — "The Employment 
of Girls in Textile Industries of Pennsylvania," by 
Peter Roberts, the Annals of the American Academy, 
23 : 434. Ages and numbers employed, law on sub- 
ject, and unpaid cost to the future. 

"Employment of Women in Industries: Cigar-making, 
its History and Present Tendencies," by Edith Ab- 
bott, the Journal of Political Economy, 15 : 1. His- 
torical review. 

"Tenement House Labor in New York," by Anna S. 
Daniel, American Journal of Social Science, 1892, p. 73. 

"The Story of a Sweatshop Girl," by Sadie Frowne, 
the Independent, 54 : 2279. Pleasant side of life. 

"The Problem of Domestic Service," by I. M. Rubinow, 
the Journal of Political Economy, 14 : 502. A new 
view of an old problem, its tendencies, and line of least 
resistance for future solution. 

*-95 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

"Housework versus Shops and Factories," by Mary E. 
Trueblood, the Independent, 54:2691. Advantages 
and disadvantages of each, from girls' viewpoint. 

"Two Weeks in Department Stores," by Annie Marion 
MacLean, the American Journal of Sociology, 4 : 721. 
An inside account of conditions in two stores, with side- 
light on lives of working girls. 

"A Salesgirl's Story," the Independent, 54: 1818. The 
story of a successful salesgirl, working conditions, life, 
and pleasures. 

"The Sweatshop in Summer," by Annie Marion MacLean, 
American Journal of Sociology, g : 289. First-hand 
study of conditions. 
Organizations and Trade Unions. — "A Progressive 
Club of Working Women," by Annie Marion MacLean, 
Charities and the Commons, 15 : 299. A short account 
of the Woman's Century Club of Dayton, Ohio. 

"Working Girls' Clubs," by Helen Campbell, Public 
Opinion, 18 : 600. First club organized, its growth 
and success. 

"Guilds for Working Women," by Helen Campbell, the 
Chautauquan, 71 : 604. An account of the guild first 
started in Philadelphia, its work, and other organiza- 
tions. 

"Association in Clubs with its Bearing on Working 
Women," by Helen Campbell, the Arena, 5:61. A 
brief account of changes in women's work, and the 
need for clubs. 

"Model Working Girls' Clubs," the Charities Review, 
4 : 307. American idea contrasted with English. 

"Working Women's Clubs," by Charlotte CofTyn Wil- 
kinson, Gunton y s Magazine, 18 : 520. Clubs organ- 
ized and maintained by National League of Women 
Workers. 

"Jennie Collins and her Boffin's Bower," by Margaret 

196 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Andrews Allen, the Charities Review, 2 : 105. An early 
attempt on part of working woman herself to better 
conditions. 

/"Trade Unions for Women," by Clare de Graffenreid, 
Lend a Hand, 10: 103. Why trade unions are of advan- 
tage to women. 
"Labor Organizations among Women," by Martha S. 
Bensley, Charities and the Commons, 15 : 384. A re- 
view of the study of the same name by Belva May Her- 
ron in the University of Illinois studies. 

Organizations. — " Organization amongst Working 
^ Women," by Lillian D. Wald, the Annals of the Ameri- 
can Academy, 27 : 638. Necessity of trade unions in 
America because of character of American law, reasons 
for success, results and benefits. 
"Women in Trade Unions," by Florence Kelley, the Out- 
look, 84 : 926. The need and reasons for trade unions, 
why unstable and where, and what they will accomplish. 
^*'The Betterment of the Conditions of Working Women," 
Edward A. Filene, the Annals of the American Academy, 
27 : 613. Industrial and vocational education, and 
organization into unions the remedy for women, and 
why unions fail at present time. 

Legislation. — "Legislative Control of Women's Work," 
by S. P. Breckinridge, and tables prepared by Frank P. 
Mils, the Journal of Political Economy, 14 : 107. Tables 
give statutes, prohibiting employment of women 
in various occupations and places; regulating the 
working time of women, — hours, overtime, night work, 
and time for meals; statutes requiring certain equip- 
ment in factories where women are employed, and mis- 
cellaneous information. 
"Factory Legislation for Women in the United States," 
by Annie Marion MacLean, the American Journal of 
Sociology, 3 : 183. Historical development of factory 

197 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

system in United States, and labor legislation; a resume 
of laws of all states, to 1897. 

"The Necessary Sequel of Child-labor Laws," by Jose- 
phine C. Goldmark, the American Journal of Sociology, 
11 : 312. Article deals with legislation in regard to 
women's work as to length of working day, restrictions, 
and states, the working of these restrictions, and neces- 
sary requirements of future labor legislation. 

"Working Women and the Laws: A Record of Neglect/ ' 
by Josephine C. Goldmark, the Annals of the American 
Academy, 28:261. An account and tabular state- 
ment of night work, where prohibited, where allowed, 
age of prohibition, and foreign legislation; laws re- 
stricting hours of labor, by day and by week, and where 
not restricted; posting laws; providing seats; toilet 
facilities; sweatshops; dangerous occupations. 



198 



INDEX 



Addams, Jane, 168. 
Amusements : 

Favorite form, 52, 82, 83. 

In coal fields, 137, 138. 

See Recreation. 
Armenians, 117, 122, 123. 
Association of Working Girls' Clubs, 
46, 169, 170. 

Benefit societies, 84, 170. 
Betterment work : 

Encouragement of organizations 
for, 179. 

Need for cooperation in, 179. 

Suggestions for, 179. 
Bibles, conditions of making, 43. 
Bibliography, 189-196. 
Boarding homes. See Homes for 

working women. 
Bohemians, 41, 57. 
Breweries : 

Hours of work in, 89, 90. 

Wages in, 90. 

Women's work in, 90. 
Button making : 

Wages in, 88, 89. 

Women's work in, 88. 

Canadians : 

English, 94, 96. 

French, 25, 96. 
Chinese, 123. 
Churches : 

In coal fields, 154-158. 
Clothing industry : 

Conditions of work in, 33, 60, 62, 
86, 87, 96. 

Corsets, 59, 97. 

Damaged goods, 62. 

Hours of work in, 36, 58, 59, 87, 
95- 



Wages in, 33, 34, 58, 59, 61, 86, 
95, 96, 97- 

Women in, 32, 33, 56, 57, 87, 88, 
96. 
Clubs : 

Association of Working Girls' 
Clubs, 46, 169, 170. 

Eleanor, 171, 172. 

Lunch, 71. 

Social, 69. 
Coal fields : 

Amusements in, 137, 138. 

Betterment work in, 154-159. 

Housing conditions in, 133- 
136. 

Location of, 130-133. 

Moral conditions in, 139. 

Needs of people in, 

Tables of information concerning, 
141-153. 

Women in, 135, 137. 
College women : 

In investigation, 8. 

Responsibilities of, 161. 
Consumers' League, 164. 
Cotton industry : 

Conditions in mills, 15, 16. 

Hours in, 16. 

Processes in, 12-14. 

Wages in, 17. 
Curtains : 

Typical factories, 36, 37, 38. 

Wages, 37. 

Women's work, 37. 

Department stores : 

Hours in, 65, 66. 

Life in, 63, 64, 66, 67. 

Wages in, 64, 65. 
Dickens, Charles, n. 
Dodge, Grace H., 169. 



199 



INDEX 



Eleanor Clubs, 171, 172. 
Electrical establishments : 

Conditions in, 67, 68. 

Hours in, 70. 

Wages in, 69. 

Women in, 69. 
Employers, need for cooperation 
with, 179. 

Factory legislation : 

Need for improved, 165. 

Table showing state, 165 (insert) 
Fruit industry : 

Processes in, 117, 118. 

Statistics for, 127, 128. 

Wages in, 118-121, 125, 126. 

Working conditions in, 117, 120, 
121. 

See Vineyards. 

Gage, Frances, in. 

Germans, 25, 41, 71, 90, 94, 117. 

Gohre, Paul, 100. 

Homes for working women : 

Accommodations of, 46, 71. 

Corporation, 93, 94. 

Eleanor Clubs, 171, 172. 

Need for establishment of, 179. 

Number of, 46, 71. 

Rates in, 46, 71. 

Y. W. C. A., 8. 
Hop picking : 

Advertisements for workers, 101. 

Importance of Oregon in, 99. 

Living conditions in fields, 104, 
105, no. 

Statistics for, 114. 

Sunday in field, 105-107. 

Wages in, 108, 109. 

Workers in, 99, 102. 
Hours, need for reduction of, 179. 
Hours of labor in : 

Breweries, 89, 90. 

Clothing industry, 36, 58, 59, 87, 

95- 
Cotton mills, 16. 
Department stores, 65, 66. 



Electrical establishments, 70. 
Paper-box shops, 42. 
Potteries, 79. 
Thread mills, 92. 
Housing : 

In coal fields, 133-136. 

In Holyoke, 25, 26. 

Value of efforts for, 170. 

See Homes for working women. 

Immigrants, n. 
Indians, 123. 
Investigation : 

Federal, 163, 169. 

Value of, 162, 163. 
Investigation, National Board : 

Industries studied, 4-7. 

Method of, 8, 9. 

Schedules used, 182-186. 
Description of, 8 

Scope of, 3-7. 

States and cities studied, 4-7. 
Investigators : 

Colleges represented by, 7. 

List of, 181. 

Number of, 8. 
Irish, 25, 41, 94. 
Israels, Mrs. Charles Henry, 47. 
Italians, 37, 41, 117. 

Japanese, 123. 
Jews, 29, 32, 41. 

Kelley, Mrs. Florence, 1. 

Larcom, Lucy, 18, 30. 
Lithuanians, 69. 

McDowell, Mary, 168. 
Mexicans, 117. 

Nativity, urban and rural, 49, 50. 

Paper boxes : 

Hours of labor in making, 42. 

Processes in making, 41, 42. 

Wages for making, 42. 
Paper making : 

Wages in, 25. 



200 



INDEX 



Paper making — continued : 

Women's work in, 24. 
Paper novelties, conditions of mak- 
ing, 44. 
Poles, 41, 57, 96. 
Potteries : 

Conditions in, 81. 

Processes in, 79, 80. 

Wages in, 81. 

Women in, 79. 
Processes in : 

Cotton industry, 12-14. 

Fruit industry, 117, 118. 

Making paper boxes, 41, 42. 

Making silk, 76, 77. 

Pottery making, 79, 80. 

See Women's work. 
Publishing houses, 43, 44. 

Recreation : 

Need of opportunities for, 179, 
180. 

Value of, 179, 180. 
Ribbon, 39, 40. 
Roberts, Dr. Peter, 130. 
Robertson, Ina Law, 171. 
Robins, Mrs. Raymond, 167. 
Russians, 117, 123, 124. 

Saleswomen. See Department 

stores. 
Scandinavians, 57. 
Settlements : 

Activities, 45, 46, 70, 168, 169. 

Number of, 45, 70. 
Shoe industry : 

Conditions in factories, 23. 

History of, 17, 18. 

Seasonal character, 20, 21. 

Specialization in, 19. 

Wages in, 21, 22. 

Women's work in, 19, 20. 
Silk: 

Processes in making, 76, 77. 

Wages, 77, 78. 

Women at work, 75. 
Simkhovitch, Mary Kingsbury, 168. 



Slavs, 133. 

Social life, opportunities for, 53. 

Statistics : 

Charts of, 47-54. 

Comparison between New York 
and Chicago, 71, 72. 

Fruit industry, 127, 128. 

Hop picking, 114. 

Middle West, 98. 

New England, 28, 29. 

New Jersey, 82. 

Women in places investigated, 

4-7. 
Women wage-earners in United 
States, 187, 188. 

Textiles. See Cotton industry, Rib- 
bon, Thread making, Twine. 
Thread, supplied by workers, 58. 
Thread making : 

Conditions in, 91, 92. 

Hours in, 92. 

Wages in, 93. 

Women's work in, 92, 93. 
Trade training, need for, 175, 176. 
Trades unions : 

Discussion of, 165, 166, 167. 

Membership in, 46, 71. 

Number of, 46, 71. 
Twine : 

Conditions of work, 40. 

Wages, 38, 39, 40. 

Women's work, 38, 39. 

Vineyards : 

Living conditions in, 121. 
Location of, 116. 
Workers in, 117. 

Wages in : 
Breweries, 90. 
Button factories, 88, 89. 
Clothing industry, 33, 34, 58, 59, 

61, 86, 95, 96, 97- 
Cotton industry, 17. 
Curtain factories, 37. 
Department stores, 64, 65. 
Electrical establishments, 69. 



20I 



INDEX 



Wages in — continued : 

Fruit industry, 118-121, 125,126. 

Hop picking, 108, 109. 

Paper-box shops, 42. 

Paper making, 25. 

Potteries, 81. 

Shoe industry, 21, 22. 

Silk mills, 77, 78. 

Thread mills, 93. 

Twine factories, 38-40. 
Wages, need for increased, 178, 179. 
Wald, Lillian D., 168. 
Welfare work, 46, 71, 167, 168. 
Wettstein-Adelt, Frau Dr. Minna, 

100. 
Women : 

Effect of work upon, 12. 

Reasons for work, 29. 
Women in : 

Clothing industry, 32, 33, 5 6, 57, 
87, 88, 96. 

Coal fields, 135, 137. 

Electrical establishments, 69. 

Potteries, 79. 

Silk factories, 75. 
Women workers : 

Causes of inefficiency of, 176. 

Effect of intensity upon, 177. 

Needs of, 83, 84, 178. 

Problems of, 176, 177. 

Society's duty toward, 178. 
Women's Trade Union League, 166, 
167. 



Women's work in : 

Breweries, 89, 90. 

Button making, 88. 

Curtain factories, 37. 

Paper making, 24. 

Shoe industry, 19, 20. 

Thread making, 92, 93. 

Twine factories, 38, 39. 
Working conditions, chart show- 
ing, 51. 
Working conditions in: 

Clothing shops, 33, 60, 62, 86, 
87, 96. 

Cotton mills, 15, 16. 

Curtain factories, 36, 37, 38. 

Department stores, 63, 64, 66, 67. 

Electrical establishments, 67, 68. 

Fruit industry, 117, 120, 121. 

Paper novelties, 44. 

Potteries, 81. 

Shoe factories, 23. 

Thread factories, 91, 92. 

Twine factories, 40. 
Wyckoff, Professor Walter, 100. 

Y. M. C. A., in coal fields, 155, 

157, 158. 
Y. W. C. A., 2, 8 ; 170. 

In Oregon, in, 115. 

Methods of work, 172. 

National Board, 4. 

Typical Association, 173. 



202 



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7 



en 






to 






<u 






o 




n u 








U 








2 

C3 


8 


•0 

c 


to 
u 

0> 


c 0, 


u 


i 


0) 


6% 


u 

'3 
H 


S3 


^_> 




to 


fj 




►0 


rt 






j+ 




O rt 


H 






CO 




H^ 


',049 


82,936 


138,724 


27,788 


6i,57i 


37,125 


26 


1,134 


705 


132 


763 


23 


2 


658 


474 


II 


401 


12 


3 


539 


538 


453 


322 


3 


633 


4,815 


6,147 


1,314 


3,406 


533 


10 


713 


641 


53 


261 


54 


,269 


1,264 


1,017 


481 


254 


141 


,120 


12,715 


22,713 


14,507 


20,916 


8,292 


,125 


2,163 


3,426 


1,588 


i,37i 


963 


910 


8,007 


10,651 


3,827 


6,391 


8,234 


2 


215 


233 


1 8 j. 


88 


47 


145 


1,612 


6,612 


2,058 


2,110 


721 


I 


334 


808 


6 


208 


16 


5 


657 


3,048 


105 


3*8 


3,446 


5 


501 


788 


19 


169 


180 





507 


2,301 


20 


284 


1,897 





349 


1,461 


4 


66 


4 


8 


822 


3,i3i 


13 


455 


19 


2 


172 


847 


1 


21 


332 


165 


6,172 


9,668 


324 


5,282 


4,263 


69 


3,483 


6,214 


447 


1,156 


571 


121 


7,195 


11,518 


453 


6,337 


1,042 


38 


3,366 


3,oi7 


415 


1,724 


1,227 


89 


2,742 


2,310 


134 


1,200 


378 


42 


2,050 


2,977 


159 


399 


209 


15 


3,450 


2,535 


42 


610 


406 


40 


3,823 


8,525 


402 


1,756 


1,287 





200 


95 





18 


3 


13 


329 


214 





12 


6 


22 


1,262 


1,074 


32 


132 


67 


14 


1,798 


1,246 


54 


237 


90 


42 


1,517 


4,468 


103 


2,IQO 


1,302 


33 


753 


3,o54 


18 


325 


246 


1 


456 


2,018 


6 


I08 


16 


2 


348 


1,752 





54 





2 


345 


4,041 


28 


233 


402 


2 


426 


844 





34 





2 


159 


171 





9 





I 


221 


167 





14 


3 


19 


1,394 


2,592 


23 


155 


32 


I 


185 


138 





21 


3 





95 


114 





3 


2 


2 


78 


71 





5 





7 


576 


698 


17 


189 


25 




40 


83 





2 








45 


108 





4 








274 


194 


3 


49 


2 





32 


37 





2 





1 


518 


352 


2 


188 


14 


13 


450 


421 


19 


99 


5 


27 


1,977 


2,467 


33i 


1,280 


102 



i T 

= 



i,S4. 

25 

1 ,0. 



Table III — Women encaged in Gainful Occupations, 16 Years of Age and over, classified by States and T tories for igoo 






i 






■' 




'.':.',",; 


1,401 


i'M' 


.-...■. 




1,07s 






;.■'.] 












i .1"-' 










1 
















1.76s 


." 




j.i ■. 1 








78; 


1,5*1 

343 






1". 


"? 


l tB 


167 






,,■ 


















S4« 




1,051 


4.0J0 



1 1 •, M 


c 'sl! 


''':' 


J.'.."-l 
i l„, 


100 


712 


4' 


& 


















aS 2 








(..,!,, 






■.,.:::;. 












16,54: 












,1,1.1 






.■'..-;;: 






:S/V 


408 


3,126 


1 IS 


i 


100 


11,81 






u.Sw 
















37 2 








1 -,.i.:;. 


Si 






197 


0.) |8 






;",:;. 


1° 






0* 




94 


16 


34 


<jg 


"8 


497 
















13 


l.rS 

18,716 


s> 

340 





2 3!. 


.3* 


i '" 


60 


j 


.,069 






HS 



571 



Note. — Unclassified individuals in the \ 



ORI 4 A 




,3f 



173 

173 

391 

284 

32 

72 

176 

261 

196 

144 

183 

171 

142 

117 

46 

53 

263 

62 

61 

25 

156 

30 

24 

101 

20 

88 

106 

283 



7,387 
67 
61 
21 

729 
56 

122 

925 

176 

601 

7 

87 

56 

32 

18 

22 

17 

43 

21 

451 
195 
820 
270 
154 
199 
260 

303 
15 

24 

134 

190 

98 

48 

16 

16 

25 

39 

13 

26 

100 

16 

15 

12 

172 

5 

4 

34 

6 

62 

82 

522 



Table III — Women engaged in Gainful 



-£ fcjo 

»-<CJ 
H 8 



327,206 
5,499 
2,817 
2,845 

15,857 
2,100 
5,o6i 

35,4io 
7,836 

24,374 
717 

4,755 

i,598 

6,769 

2,688 

4,088 

3,150 

5,480 

1,663 

18,580 

9,806 

23,087 

12,834 

12,137 

10,825 

19,579 

11,711 

1,876 

3,135 

7,673 
8,353 
6,052 
4,538 
3,332 
4,108 

3,277 

2,428 

707 

1,202 

8,470 

1,020 

632 

424 

2,793 

390 

373 

1,038 

3SO 

2,585 

2,530 

8,674 



C <u 



5,440 
11 
16 

9 

340 
30 
72 

J, 145 
160 

415 

7 

84 

86 

28 

15 

9 

12 

22 

6 

269 

168 

584 

175 

128 

123 

101 

222 

9 

7 

98 

63 
33 
35 
17 

5 

44 

15 

5 

7 

46 

22 

2 

2 

145 

2 

7 

24 

106 

44 
459 



C 3 

o£? 

«•& 

o 
h-1 



59,445 

724 

548 

346 

4,221 

654 

1,158 

6,379 

2,003 

4,691 

207 

820 

480 

933 

483 

698 

427 

1,107 

525 

2,879 

1,890 

4,198 

1,782 

1,041 

949 
1,118 
2,885 

in 

153 
680 

764 
848 

1,004 
951 
654 
896 
804 
181 
132 

2,113 

635 

182 

96 

1,650 
120 
212 
204 
72 
621 
546 

2,680 



>,533 
65 
33 



O.-O 



146,929 
3,292 
2,595 



13 


1,744 


137 


n,356 


16 


1,542 


47 


3,374 


634 


16,137 


258 


4,177 


361 


15,060 


5 


496 


48 


2,294 


21 


529 


92- 


2,704 


114 


1,743 


128 


2,186 


66 


892 


161 


1,659 


127 


467 


359 


9,542 


288 


4,917 


651 


10,130 


236 


5,339 


231 


3,796 


239 


4,211 


276 


5,25i 


496 


4,534 


47 


1,107 


60 


759 


178 


1,884 


204 


2,789 


143 


2,362 


151 


2,484 


155 


1,166 


219 


814 


158 


947 


256 


1,108 


86 


432 


72 


469 


457 


2,344 


81 


647 


57 


242 


33 


287 


203 


1,176 


42 


161 


22 


177 


63 


256 


27 


76 


182 


1,030 


in 


899 


424 


3,346 



Note. — Unclassifi' 



\ 



